This book was an excellent read. It is written at a very good level. There is plenty of detail, but it is presented so that the general reader does not get bogged down in it, but someone after the nitty gritty will still be satisfied. His descriptions are very lucid, using some very effective analogies. I learned numerous historical details, many of which are interesting well beyond the field of cryptography. For example, the US used members of the Navaho tribe to perform military communications in their somewhat intractable language during WW2.
My only disappointment is that the book is slightly out of date, as it was published in 1999. It would be really interesting to see a similar discussion of the events of the last few years, like the whistle-blowing on the NSA’s behaviour and particularly the very recent controversies about iPhone unlocking. However, there is coverage of the potential role of quantum computers and the like, which is explained very clearly.
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