Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books about this topic
Comment: A great book. If you are passionate with hisotry, mind challenges and encryption you must read it. I've read the italian edition (very well transalted, BTW) and now I'm gonna buy the english one.
The finding of facts is accurate and well exposed (except for the encryption related technicalities,that are a bit confusing for their shortness, but this is really a minor and non relavant "bug").
Customer Rating:
Summary: What is hidden will be revealed
Comment: What is hidden will be revealed. This is the concept of this book. After a brief history of pre-war cryptographic work, it outlines the Allied cryptologists' breaking Axis codes and ciphers, discreetly mentioning the early lack of candor of "our British cousins". There is a decent explanation of the precursors of modern computers used by the eclectic, and sometimes eccentric, people at Bletchley Park, England (a story in themselves) and the USA developments that often built on the British work. The appendices have some useful information for the technically challenged. Misuse of the decrypts is not glossed over, particularly the alleged security looseness by MacArthur's headquarters and the tendancy of some commanders to ignore intelligence estimates or to color them by the commander's preconceptions. Budiansky cites Montgomery's cautious lack of pursuit of Afrika Korps in North Africa after the victory at El Alemain in October 1942 and the surprise of the 1944 German offensive in the Ardennes as examples. However, I have some doubts that there was enough information available from any source to predict accurately the 1944 offensive's location. Budiansky only somewhat indicates agreement. (Tactical intelligence deals primarily with capabilities and secondarily with intentions). An exception to this rule is the well-described Navy coup at Midway, including the in house fighting between the Hawaii station and the US Navy headquarters. I would have liked more information on Axis decryption, though it may have caused the book to be the size of Webster's unabridged. I do recommend it to those interested in the general history of World War II decryption.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The straight story
Comment: Very thoroughly researched, with lots of new and interesting details. Especially clear explanations of how it all worked. This is not "cryptology for drooling idiots," but with a little attention you can follow the details without knowing anything about group theory. I really liked the material about the development of mechanical methods for sorting and correlating -- poorly covered in most accounts.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book, but weak on Japanese codes
Comment: I agree with the reivewer from Washington, D.C., who enjoyed the book: I thought it was marvelously well-written -- I have enjoyed Mr. Budiansky's stuff in the Atlantic Montly magazine in the past -- and it showed me new things about a subject I thought I knew pretty well. At the same time, I have to agree with John Berry that the greater part of the book was spent discussing British/U.S. cooperation, and the focus was clearly on cracking the German Enigma (and the use of Ultra intelligence). I am glad I read the book, as it was informative and fun (I laughed out loud at a few things, surprising myself and the others on the train) but I really would have really enjoyed deeper coverage of the Pacific theater.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Definitive history of Codebreaking in WWII
Comment: Unquestionably the finest general history of codebreaking in the Second World War. This comprehensive, well-researched and well-balanced treatment is particularly valuable for its account of the US contribution to the codebreaking war. Everyone interested in cryptanalysis or the history of the Second World War should read this book.
Summary: One of the best books about this topic
Comment: A great book. If you are passionate with hisotry, mind challenges and encryption you must read it. I've read the italian edition (very well transalted, BTW) and now I'm gonna buy the english one.
The finding of facts is accurate and well exposed (except for the encryption related technicalities,that are a bit confusing for their shortness, but this is really a minor and non relavant "bug").
I just have to remark that - while the author go deeply in the first WWII's years, explaining the "US-UK breaking Enigma's howto", he don't spend enough pages on Colossus-Mark1 (the Turing's "computer" used for brute force attacks and about the involvement of IBM machines both in the US and German battlefield.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What is hidden will be revealed
Comment: What is hidden will be revealed. This is the concept of this book. After a brief history of pre-war cryptographic work, it outlines the Allied cryptologists' breaking Axis codes and ciphers, discreetly mentioning the early lack of candor of "our British cousins". There is a decent explanation of the precursors of modern computers used by the eclectic, and sometimes eccentric, people at Bletchley Park, England (a story in themselves) and the USA developments that often built on the British work. The appendices have some useful information for the technically challenged. Misuse of the decrypts is not glossed over, particularly the alleged security looseness by MacArthur's headquarters and the tendancy of some commanders to ignore intelligence estimates or to color them by the commander's preconceptions. Budiansky cites Montgomery's cautious lack of pursuit of Afrika Korps in North Africa after the victory at El Alemain in October 1942 and the surprise of the 1944 German offensive in the Ardennes as examples. However, I have some doubts that there was enough information available from any source to predict accurately the 1944 offensive's location. Budiansky only somewhat indicates agreement. (Tactical intelligence deals primarily with capabilities and secondarily with intentions). An exception to this rule is the well-described Navy coup at Midway, including the in house fighting between the Hawaii station and the US Navy headquarters. I would have liked more information on Axis decryption, though it may have caused the book to be the size of Webster's unabridged. I do recommend it to those interested in the general history of World War II decryption.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The straight story
Comment: Very thoroughly researched, with lots of new and interesting details. Especially clear explanations of how it all worked. This is not "cryptology for drooling idiots," but with a little attention you can follow the details without knowing anything about group theory. I really liked the material about the development of mechanical methods for sorting and correlating -- poorly covered in most accounts.
Sticks to documented facts and steers clear of speculation and hearsay, which may be part of why the book seems slightly light on the Pacific side. But if you like your history factual, clear, and well-written, this is an excellent book.
It's no accident that it sells well in Virginia and Maryland!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book, but weak on Japanese codes
Comment: I agree with the reivewer from Washington, D.C., who enjoyed the book: I thought it was marvelously well-written -- I have enjoyed Mr. Budiansky's stuff in the Atlantic Montly magazine in the past -- and it showed me new things about a subject I thought I knew pretty well. At the same time, I have to agree with John Berry that the greater part of the book was spent discussing British/U.S. cooperation, and the focus was clearly on cracking the German Enigma (and the use of Ultra intelligence). I am glad I read the book, as it was informative and fun (I laughed out loud at a few things, surprising myself and the others on the train) but I really would have really enjoyed deeper coverage of the Pacific theater.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Definitive history of Codebreaking in WWII
Comment: Unquestionably the finest general history of codebreaking in the Second World War. This comprehensive, well-researched and well-balanced treatment is particularly valuable for its account of the US contribution to the codebreaking war. Everyone interested in cryptanalysis or the history of the Second World War should read this book.