The Code Book

Cambridge University awarded Simon Singh a Ph.D. in physics. He was a former BBC producer who directed and co-produced an award-winning documentary film about Fermat's Last Theorem, which broadcast on PBS's Nova series and served as the premise for his best-selling book, Fermat's Enigma.

Simon Singh gives the first comprehensive history of encryption, charting its growth and uncovering the enormous effects codes have had on armies, nations, and individual lives in his first book since the bestseller Fermat's Enigma. The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy, from Mary, Queen of Scots, who was trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logistical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure.

There are detailed technical and mathematical explanations throughout the narrative, as well as portraits of the exceptional individuals who wrote and broke the world's most challenging codes. The Code Book will forever change your perspective on history and what drives it. It is accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching. It will also make you worry how secure that e-mail you just sent is.

Author: Simon Singh

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323/

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 1308 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #20,437 in Books

#4 in Computer Cryptography

#4 in Web Encryption

#17 in Linguistics Reference