The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet [Hardcover]

Despite the fact that it attempts to cover the entire history of the subject,
the center of mass of the chronology probably lies somewhere around 1925 -
that is, a large portion of the book is devoted to WWI and WWII. This is quite
appropriate, as these were the periods when cryptography blossomed in
complexity and interest, and equally importantly it is the period of greatest
*historical* interest to contemporary readers. But even so, Kahn casts his net
into some rarely explored corners: he does not neglect to discuss medieval
cryptography (lovers of medieval polyphony will not be surprised to learn that
a passion for intricate puzzles also animated the art of secret writing), he
devotes some pages to cryptography in non-Western societies, and he gives an
in-depth discussion of the U.S. intelligence services' activities on the day
of the Pearl Harbour attacks.

For me, the two best chapters of the book came after he had completed his main
narrative arc. One chapter, called "The Pathology of Cryptology", studies the
pseudo-science wing of cryptology: all those efforts to discover 'secret
meanings' in apparently non-secretive texts. The story of attempts to extract
from the text of Shakespeare's plays the latent confession that they had in fact
been written by Francis Bacon is hilarious and pitiful at once. And not only
Shakespeare: the Bible (Michael Drosnin's 'The Bible Code' is evidently only
the latest in a string of ill-considered efforts to turn the Holy Scripture
into a crystal ball), Dante, Homer, even Jonathan Swift have all, at one time
or another, been made marionette by would-be decoders who - let's be generous -
did not quite understand what they were doing.

Second, Kahn writes a chapter on the decipherment of ancient scripts, such as
Egyptian hieroglypics and the famous Greek script Linear B. This is a
fascinating subject, well told (though I think that Simon Singh's 'The Code
Book', which treats the same topic, is even better).

Anyone, however, who wishes to read this book should understand that it is
incomplete as to the modern history of the subject. This is no fault of the
book, for it was written in 1967. The most significant topics missed are,
first, the cracking of the Enigma cipher during WWII, which was not
declassified until after Kahn wrote, and, second, the very significant
developments in cryptography in the age of the computer and internet,
especially the new paradigm of public-key cryptography. (In fact this new
edition of the book does include a short new chapter on both of these topics,
but the treatment is cursory. Simon Singh, in his aforementioned book, does a
much more thorough and clearer job on these topics.)

In summary, then, this is *the* book on cryptographic history, so long as
you're content to finish up in the mid-20th century.

Despite the fact that it attempts to cover the entire history of the subject, the center of mass of the chronology probably lies somewhere around 1925 - that is, a large portion of the book is devoted to WWI and WWII. This is quite appropriate, as these were the periods when cryptography blossomed in complexity and interest, and equally importantly it is the period of greatest *historical* interest to contemporary readers. But even so, Kahn casts his net into some rarely explored corners: he does not neglect to discuss medieval cryptography (lovers of medieval polyphony will not be surprised to learn that a passion for intricate puzzles also animated the art of secret writing), he devotes some pages to cryptography in non-Western societies, and he gives an in-depth discussion of the U.S. intelligence services' activities on the day of the Pearl Harbour attacks.

For me, the two best chapters of the book came after he had completed his main narrative arc. One chapter, called "The Pathology of Cryptology", studies the pseudo-science wing of cryptology: all those efforts to discover 'secret meanings' in apparently non-secretive texts. The story of attempts to extract from the text of Shakespeare's plays the hidden claim that they had in fact been written by Francis Bacon is hilarious and pitiful at once. And not only Shakespeare: the Bible (Michael Drosnin's 'The Bible Code' is evidently only the latest in a string of ill-considered efforts to turn the Holy Scripture into a crystal ball), Dante, Homer, even Jonathan Swift have all, at one time or another, been made marionette by would-be decoders who - let's be generous - have not quite understood what they are doing.

Second, Kahn writes a chapter on the decipherment of ancient scripts, such as Egyptian hieroglypics and the famous Greek script Linear B. This is a fascinating subject, well told (though I think that Simon Singh's 'The Code Book', which treats the same topic, is even better).

Anyone, however, who wishes to read this book should understand that it is incomplete as to the modern history of the subject. This is no fault of the book, for it was written in 1967. The most significant topics missed are, first, the decipherment of the Enigma cipher during WWII, which was not declassified until after Kahn wrote, and, second, the very significant developments in cryptography in the age of the computer and internet, especially the new paradigm of public-key cryptography. (In fact this new edition of the book does include a short new chapter on both of these topics, but the treatment is cursory. Simon Singh, in his aforementioned book, does a much more thorough and clearer job on these topics.)

In summary, then, this is *the* book on cryptographic history, so long as you're content to finish up in the mid-20th century.

Yes, I found that, at times, the text gets bogged down in minutae that may not appeal to a particular reader, but in a volume of this magnitude, with this scope, and this ambition, that is virtually a lock.

What many of the reviewers don't seem to realize that the book was written in the context of the 1960s and that not only the writing, but also events described must be put into context. David Kahn does an excellent job of doing just that. To illustrate, I might simply point out his portrait of Herbert O. Yardley. One only has to read Yardley's "Education of a Poker Player" to understand just how accurate Kahn was in describing Yardley and his role.

Like all history books of a more specialized nature, there is a serious advantage to having enough background information to understand where events, people, and technology fit into the puzzle.

If you are seriously interested in what went on "behind the scenes" in much of the historical events of the 19th and 20th centuries, this book provides information that is an essential part of the puzzle.