The Code Book - The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography From the bestselling author of Fermat's Last Theorem, The Code Book is an enthralling history of codes and code-breaking from Egyptian puzzles to modern day computer encryptions. Since humans began writing, they have been writing in code. This quest for secrecy has often changed the course of history. In The Code Book, Simon Singh offers a sweeping view of the subject of encryption as well as its more dramatic effects on the outcome of wars, monarchies, and individual lives. Singh also traces the monumental improvements in code-making and -breaking brought on by World Wars I and II, the outcomes of which could have been very different without the brilliance of the Allied code breakers. Now, in the Information Age, the possibility of a truly unbreakable code looms large and cryptography has become one of the major debates of our times. Simon Singh investigates the challenges to personal privacy that technology and the ways we communicate today have upon everyday lives. Dramatic, compelling, and remarkably far reaching, this is a book that will forever alter your view of history, what drives it, and how private that e-mail you just sent really is...

note - former owner's name on front endpaper.