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| Product Details |
| The British and Americans also made important contributions to Allied cryptanalysis. The supremacy of the Allied codebreakers and their influence on the Great War are best illustrated by the decipherment of a German telegram that was intercepted by the British on 17 January 1917. The story of this decipherment shows how cryptanalysis can affect the course of war at the very highest level, and demonstrates the potentially devastating repercussions of employing inadequate encryption. Within a matter of weeks, the deciphered telegram would force America to rethink its policy of neutrality, thereby shifting the balance of the war. |
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Key Information
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| Authors: |
Simon Singh |
| Nonfiction Subcategory: |
History |
| Nonfiction Category: |
Science |
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Professional Reviews
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Literary Review: "[This book] is a useful summary of the enciphering and deciphering thought-processes of some of the world's most powerful bureaucracies, from classical times to the ending of the Cold War and into a third millenium--a world of international terrorism, money-laundering, and drug-running....Singh has already been hailed as a leading member of a generation of American and British science-writers whose success indicates that the reading public can cope with dizziness as the latest theories of numbers and random uncertainties in the new cosmology whiz by them.", New York Times Book Review: "Singh's approach is to make each of a series of historical incidents the frame for holding the reader's interest as he fills in technical details of successive coding systems. His exposition is especially effective at putting the reader in the code breaker's shoes, facing each new, apparently unbreakable code, until the discovery of a breakthrough idea uncovers a new form of vulnerability....The almost universal fascination with codes undoubtedly derives from the extraordinary feats of ingenuity that have gone into devising and breaking them, as well as their enormous impact on world events. Singh's book offers more than its share of both.", Adair, Gilbert, Evening Standard (London): "[This book is] lucidly written, taking just as long as it needs to explain some abstruse problem but not so long as to make one glance wistfully ahead of the page....[Singh] strikes a judicious balance between the historically significant...and the historically insignificant but entertainingly racy....Like the baby bear's porridge, the dosage is just right.", Bernstein, Richard, New York Times: "A former producer for the BBC who has a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University, Singh knows his subject, and he is a skillful popularizer of it. It would be harder to imagine a clearer or more fascinating presentation of cryptology and decryptology than nonspecialists will get in this book." |
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Book Editions
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- Paperback
- Reprint
- 411
- August 01, 2000
- Anchor Books
- 8.25"(h) x 5.5"(w) x 0.75"(d), 0.9 lbs.
- 9780385495325
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First Line
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| Publisher's Note: |
For thousands of years, kings, queens and generals have relied on efficient communication in order to govern their countries and command their armies. At the same time, they have all been aware of the consequences of their messages falling into the wrong hands, revealing precious secrets to rival nations and betraying vital information to opposing forces. |
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