Books on Cryptography
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Codebreakers : The Inside Story of Bletchley Park - by F. H. Hinsley (Editor), Alan Stripp (Editor) ($11.96) - Review from Booklist , November 1, 1993:
This set of 27 personal narratives by British code breakers who served at the famous Bletchley Park center during World War II does not require much background on cryptography or even much interest in the subject. It offers the human side of an operation more secret than and just as critical to Allied victory as anything in the war except the Manhattan Project. For the most part, the men and women involved herein tell their stories with simple eloquence. It is fortunate that they were released from their Official Secrets Act oaths before time silenced them forever.
Roland Green
Copyright© 1993, American Library Association. All rights reserved
Fermat's Enigma : The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh, John Lynch ($9.60) Review from Amazon.com:
When Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced a solution of Fermat's last theorem in 1993 it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year--he had already labored in solitude for seven years--to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the star-, trauma-, and wacko-studded history of Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's Enigma contains some problems that offer a taste for the math, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the goofy side of mathematicians.