false 29608 8 "Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one that, if they just tried, they could invent a cipher that no one could break," writes David Kahn in this massive (almost 1,200 pages) volume. Most of <i>The Codebreakers</i> focuses on the 20th century, especially World War II. But its reach is long. Kahn traces cryptology's origins to the advent of writing. It seems that as soon as people learned how to record their thoughts, they tried to figure out ways of keeping them hidden. Kahn covers everything from the theory of ciphering to the search for "messages" from outer space. He concludes with a few thoughts about encryption on the Internet. 458200 1973 The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet total:61|5:22|4:26|3:12|2:1| 61 252 170 4 3 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 06:54:41 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 23 09:54:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Fri Dec 12 12:53:02 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 12:54:25 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Wed Jun 27 19:53:08 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 19:54:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sun Mar 23 01:14:45 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 23 01:15:14 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Fri Oct 23 21:07:59 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 21:07:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 23 10:25:21 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 10:25:21 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 22 06:40:04 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 06:40:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 19 13:09:15 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 13:09:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 26 16:09:48 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 21:00:19 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Sep 22 00:10:59 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 00:10:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 18 15:42:24 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 15:42:24 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Sep 18 07:46:06 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 07:46:06 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 12 15:07:58 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 15:07:58 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 26 09:52:59 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 09:52:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 24 18:25:47 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 18:25:47 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Aug 18 15:02:29 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 15:02:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Aug 02 10:16:28 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 10:17:31 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 27 15:28:09 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 15:28:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 24 02:41:52 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 02:41:52 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jul 20 19:37:11 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 19:37:11 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=29608