[Cryptography] Review: The Codebreaker, by David Kahn

[Richard Outerbridge]

On 2014-07-03 (184), at 23:46:45, Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:

> Blimey, but that was a tome and a half...  Over a thousand pages of fairly 
> dense writing (with little mathematics involved).  I can't even begin to 
> do it justice, so I'll just point out a few highlights.
> 
> Originally published in 1967, this edition is 1996, and covers material 
> such as Enigma, Purple, the capture of the Pueblo, public-key crypto, etc, 
> all of which were unknown at the time.
> 
> His breadth and depth of knowledge is immense, and he has a knack of 
> recalling events as though he was actually present.

[…..]

> All in all, it definitely belongs on your shelf, right next to Schneier.

Absolutely. Kahn is THE Classic. Read him before Schneier. Both are great writers.

Like Schneier, though, Kahn could have used a bit of a fact checking editor every
once in a while, but hey, why let obscure facts get in the way of a great story?

No disrespect! Both are absolutely breathtakingly groundbreaking.

The 1996 reissue was a bit of an anti climax let down; old wine in a new skin.

Almost like the 2nd Edition of Schneier, come to think of it.
__outer