Read the history of code and start cracking

? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

“Just by the mere act of reading this sentence you have successfully broken a code.” It is thanks to this opening sentence that we became hooked to bestselling author Sinclair McKay’s book, The Hidden History of Code-Breaking: The Secret World of Cyphers, Uncrackable Codes, and Elusive Encryption. As language has evolved over humanity’s history to enable clearer, more concise communication, so have attempts to obscure it. Why? Simply to conceal sensitive information found in everything from love letters, to details about ancient civilizations’ puzzling advancements, all the way to wartime communiqués.

And while codes can be fun to make sense of, deciphering them — or being unable to — can often have enormous consequences. Take, for instance, the Nazis’ enigma machine during World War II: A device based on a sophisticated encryption system that was put in place to ensure the secure transmission of highly confidential data — until its downfall thanks to the genius minds of Polish mathematicians. Ultimately, the book is a celebration of human creativity throughout the centuries and what it is capable of.