The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

Author: Simon Singh
Genre: popular science, history

The book highlights the history of codes and code-breaking. Through the book, the writer aims to describe the evolution of codes- from the first known codes used somewhere by the Greeks and Romans right up to encryption in modern times.

The author describes the people who invented various ciphers and the process by which these ciphers were formed and eventually broken as well. He discusses how the ciphers were initially limited mostly for military use but the heralding of the information age had made it a necessity for the general public as well. The final chapter discusses the future of encryption, the advent of quantum computers and quantum cryptography.

 In addition, the author also discusses how the scripts of ancient languages were deciphered. Taking the example of decipherment of hieroglyphics and Linear B; an ancient script of Greek, he likens it to code-breaking where essentially the same principles were used for decipherment.

Overall, the book is very well structured and the author avoids using too many technical terms. The author has also done a fantastic job of portraying the various people involved, the stories make the book a very interesting read. In the chapter where the author reports the debate between whether encryption be limited to government or given to the masses in the information age, he maintains a neutral ground and leaves it to the reader to decide. 

However, I would not say that the book is an easy read. Although the writer has gone at great lengths to elaborate the process of how every cipher works and how it can be broken, following the process can still be quite tedious. I would advise that if one really wants to gain something from this book, then read it at leisure and with a clear mind.

Overall, I would highly recommend anyone interested in ciphers and code-breaking to go through this book. At the end and throughout, you’ll be rewarded with plenty of examples which you try solving on your own as well.