Hidden Codes & Grand Designs: Secret Languages from Ancient Times to Modern Day

by Pierre Berloquin

Did the Masons hide messages in the street plan of Washington, D.C.? Does the Hebrew Bible conceal hidden mysteries? Ingenious methods for encrypting secrets have taken many amazing turns through the ages, from the military signals the Romans flashed from hilltop to hilltop to the computer codes that guard your cash at the ATM. Pierre Berloquin, one of France’s leading puzzle book authors, takes you on a tour of them all in a book full of astonishing historical insights. With more than 150 brain-teasing problems for readers to solve, this new paperback edition of Hidden Codes & Grand Designs goes deep into the how-to of codes, ciphers, and other secret communication systems.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Linguistics

375 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2007

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC! This book had a loose focus, at times meandered, and felt... well rounded! The combination of straight information, historical context, and interactive involvement (its like a workbook - you get to see each code working and practice deciphering skills) makes this book an absolute joy to "read". If you are reading it for reference purposes - like i was - its engaging enough. the interactive element surprised me, pleasantly i might add. At first it was fairly easy... but the more complex algorithms became brain busting at times and tedious... but it makes the whole idea of ciphers and the role they have played and will play in the future so much more alive. Programmers, math junkies, historians, and those seeking to just exercise their brain would do well to jump into this book... tremendous fun!

[Doug Lewars · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** Possible spoilers ***

I found this to be an interesting book but don't look to it for organization. Anything that can possibly be used to represent something else is a code to this author and with the bit firmly planted in his teeth he runs with it. So simple transposition of letters is included along with art symbols.

There is some interesting history that is included. He discusses certain aspects of the crusades and the Knights Templer that I hadn't encountered before and he suggests the possibility that when the Templers were disbanded, some wound up within the Freemasons although he states that there isn't any real proof of that.

There are a lot of exercises in decoding and code breaking for the reader but I was mostly interested in code generation and the history so I didn't bother with those. In terms of technicality the book is a little thin because, while it mentions PGP it doesn't dwell on it in much detail. A little less history and more on modern computer encryption might have been a good trade-off.

For those who are both history buffs and interested in the development of coding techniques and how codes have been deployed in the past I can recommend the book. Just don't expect the material to be really well organized.

[Andrea Salayová · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting something else when I started reading the book, but it really surprised me with depth of information not only about codes, but about history and lifes of people I had no idea about. But I thing that some of the chapters are little bit off the topic and sometimes jumping from one information or era to another caused confusion. I didn't mind the parts where you could break codes yourself, but i think it should be less of them (considering that majority of them was just easy substitutional codes, just with different symbols). But overall I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot of interesting information.

[Delaney Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history aspect of this was quite interesting, but as it got into more recent events, it started feeling a little conspiracy-theory-y in that some of the conclusions the author drew were not supported very well. However, I did particularly enjoy the appendix of different code forms (which is why I checked it out in the first place). I'd say it's still worth a read (for the "hidden codes"), but definitely with a grain of salt (for the "grand designs").

[Ahmed Samy · Rating 4 out of 5]

very illustrative