3 Review(s)

In the wake of the Nazi-wrought chaos, one man began to decipher their cryptic code and offer humanity one last chance against the forces of Hitler. Alan Turing: The Enigma tells the story of the man who began the Computer Revolution, and who was persecuted for his homosexuality despite his achievements. Summary of the Book During the Second World War, the Germans were successfully passing cryptic messages past the borders, leaking important information to their home base. Despite the efforts of Churchill’s forces, not even the best of the British Intelligence’s cryptologists could crack the so-called “Enigma Code”. All seemed to be lost, there could be no victory without knowledge of what the enemy knew. It was then that the work of a scientist bore fruit. Alan Turing had been working on a concept, a dream he called the “universal machine”. Little did he know that nearly half a decade later, his dream would snowball into the modern personal computer. Turing’s work with the concept, delivering an electronic design in 1945, allowed the Allied Forces to crack the Enigma Code. This laid bare all the secret messages of the Nazis and allowed the Allies the chance they needed to improve their own cryptography systems. One would think that after the war, Turing would be felicitated. Instead, Turing was persecuted for his homosexual alliances, arrested, stripped of his security clearance and forced into a shameful treatment program. This book, his biography, reveals the story of a man who started the Computer Revolution, a man ahead of his time, who was forced to bear the brunt of a close-minded society. About Andrew Hodges Andrew Hodges is a British writer and mathematician known for his books on popular science and mathematics. Media Note This book was the primary source material for the film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch.