Book: The Codebreakers by David Kahn

[woodwardiocom]

This is one of the (if not the) definitive books on the history of codes, ciphers, and related matters. It's one of those books I always meant to read, but never got around to. However, I found a reasonably-priced copy of the 1967 first edition, fourth printing at McIntyre & Moore several months back, and have finally worked my way through its thousand-or-so pages.

The centerpiece of this book — in that the topic was both of recent interest, but not so recent that it was classified out of reach — is the opening chapter, about the codebreaking that nearly warned the US about Pearl Harbor, but didn't, quite. One gets the impression that Kahn's research into that specific topic led him to spend the years necessary to assemble the rest of the book, which covers the history of codebreaking from the "wrap a strip of papyrus around a stick and write lengthwise" technique of thousands of years ago through to the founding of the NSA, stopping off in the Black Chambers, the Civil War, and World War I along the way, before settling in for a long stay in WW2. After finishing up with the complete history of political and military codebreaking in only 700 pages, he then steps back and weaves through related topics, such as the ciphers of Poe and Doyle, the rumrunner codes of Prohibition, telegraph codes (which make me really want to track down a copy of The ABC Telegraphic Code on eBay), the misguided obsessions of the Baconists, using codebreaking techniques to understand dead languages, and how the science might be applied to comprehending messages from aliens.

His writing is reasonably engaging, and generally very clear. Few were the times when his explanations puzzled me, and I now know enormously more about topics like the Playfair Cipher, Friedman's kappa sub p, and Linear B, than I did going in. While this book may not be for everyone, nevertheless: Highly recommended.

Comments

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

There was a new edition in the late 90's that's worth picking up if you can find it, as there's significantly more information on ENIGMA, MAGIC and PURPLE.

[szasz.livejournal.com]

I borrowed this book in the late 80's from the U of I library, lost it, fessed up and paid for it, then found it again years later. I struggled with returning it anyway, but when I saw they had four other copies, mostly cleared my conscience.

Mine is the original 1967 edition as well; I've thumbed through his updates but the world of cryptography has become so advanced and highly mathematical and computational of late, I found I actually preferred having it omitted from this otherwise wonderfully complete pageantry.

My favorite chapters were the ones that demonstrated how codes and codebreaking changed history. While his more technical discussions are interesting, I found his writing dried up a bit there, as if he knew he was slipping into "textbook" mode but didn't quite want to. There are also some errors in those sections that I am not sure got corrected in later editions or not.

All in all, though, an excellent reference as well as casual reading; I take my copy down from time to time for before-bed relaxing.

[sleepyworm.livejournal.com]

generally this sort of book just feels sort of beyond me, but this particular one seems fascinating...I might have to track it down myself!

[ceo]

I had this book (actually the mid-90s edition), and lent it to someone and then forgot who I'd lent it to. :-( Fortunately, I'd read it first.