The code book: the science of secrecy from ancient egypt to quantum cryptography - simon singh

From the author of the bestselling Fermats Enigma comes a compelling tour through the cloaked world of codes and code breaking, from Greek military espionage to Navajo code talkers to the frontiers of computer science.

Illustrations.

In his first book since the bestselling Fermats Enigma , Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives.

From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.

Throughout the text are clear technical and mathematical explanations, and portraits of the remarkable personalities who wrote and broke the worlds most difficult codes.

Accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this book will forever alter your view of history and what drives it.

It will also make you wonder how private that e-mail you just sent really is.