Good enough, but suffers from the typical problems of pop-science-history stuff: obsession with a limited number of personalities, repetition of accepted truths about history, nationalism, focus on "stories", dilution of information about the process of cryptography etc. Still interesting ( )

On the surface of it, The Code Book is a very unglamorous book - a somewhat analytical book filled with technical jargon on the history of cryptography, starting from its first mentions in written record to the somewhat confusing introduction to quantum computing and quantum cryptography.
But on a deeper glance, Simon Singh reveals himself as a passionate and intense geek who wants to explain how our communication is encrypted and decrypted to laypeople, who might not know what algorithms and modulus functions are but who deserve to know what cryptography is. It is telling that most of the concepts he teaches are through stories - why a particular cypher was invented and how history could have been much different if a few specific messages were still secure. It was heartening to note that even knowing all the basics - there was a lot of stuff to absorb - including the inner workings of Enigma used in WW2, the decryption of Linear B, an extinct Mediterranean language.
The Code Book's ending chapters have dated horribly, though. Simon envisioned a future where the public would need cryptography because they would be emailing forms containing their credit card information to retailers for e-commerce. Amazon took this concept to a hitherto unforeseen level. Moore's Law has stagnated, the debate on cryptography has changed immensely, for better or worse - and quantum computing remains as nascent as ever. Still, the basics of cryptography have remained the same - for that alone; this is a fine read. ( )

This is just what a popular book explaining a niche topic should be: lucid, fast-paced, and useful. I cracked the encryption in the appendix based on his explanation of how to do it so that was nice. ( )

DNF. Book didn't hold my interest. Not sure precisely why. May have been a formatting issue.

Hiding secrets (i.e., cryptography or the science of encryption) has become an increasingly important topic in the modern Information Age. It’s not just the stuff of the military and diplomacy. We cannot communicate secrets like credit card numbers over the Internet without it. In this book, dated around the turn of the millennium, Singh shares the history of encrypting messages. He begins to forecast its impact in the twenty-first century while noting exciting trends in the directions of quantum computing and quantum cryptography.

Near the beginning of the Common Era, Julius Caesar famously used a “caesar cipher” to cloak his messages. Conceptually, it’s so easy to implement that my elementary-school-aged daughter learned about it. But soon, it became just as easy to break it. This war between code-makers and code-breakers has continued throughout history. Singh tells us of the major battles of this war in a lively and informative way. He provides both the historical setting and technical details behind these events.

Some of the most interesting stories surround the events of the twentieth century’s world wars. Singh tells each of these stories, with particular depth surrounding the British efforts. Alan Turing and others from England’s eclectic Bletchley Park are described in detail. Described in just as exciting of a manner are modern mathematical efforts around digital encryption. RSA and DES encryption are meticulously explored. Obviously, efforts in the new millennium, in which the Internet has tremendously grown in importance, are not described because of the publication date. Nonetheless, the general trajectory of the field can be ascertained by this historical dive.

Indeed, history conveys ideas with extreme accuracy, so this book introduces readers to the field in an accessible way. Anyone looking to learn about cryptography from real-world methods can gain from this treatment. It does not enter into mathematical minutiae and leaves that to other introductions. Instead, as a history, it deals with pragmatics by an approach that non-mathematicians can appreciate. Singh has adapted this text into a later version that is directed to interested young people. Together, either of these books will orient curious readers about this increasingly important field. ( )