Geniuses at War
Bletchley Park, Colossus, and the Dawn of the Digital Age
David A. Price
- **The
- dramatic,
- untold
- story
- of
- the
- brilliant
- team
- whose
- feats
- of
- innovation
- and
- engineering
- created
- the
- world’s
- first
- digital
- electronic
- computer—decrypting
- the
- Nazis’
- toughest
- code,
- helping
- bring
- an
- end
- to
- WWII,
- and
- ushering
- in
- the
- information
- age.•
- Winner,
- Institute
- of
- Electrical
- and
- Electronics
- Engineers
- Middleton
- Award
- for
- "a
- book
- ...
- that
- both
- exemplifies
- exceptional
- scholarship
- and
- reaches
- beyond
- academic
- communities
- toward
- a
- broad
- public
- audience."
- •
- A
- Kirkus
- Best
- Book
- of
- 2022
- •**Planning
- the
- invasion
- of
- Normandy,
- the
- Allies
- knew
- that
- decoding
- the
- communications
- of
- the
- Nazi
- high
- command
- was
- imperative
- for
- its
- success.
- But
- standing
- in
- their
- way
- was
- an
- encryption
- machine
- they
- called
- Tunny
- (British
- English
- for
- “tuna”),
- which
- was
- vastly
- more
- difficult
- to
- crack
- than
- the
- infamous
- Enigma
- cipher.To
- surmount
- this
- seemingly
- impossible
- challenge,
- Alan
- Turing,
- the
- Enigma
- codebreaker,
- brought
- in
- a
- maverick
- English
- working-class
- engineer
- named
- Tommy
- Flowers
- who
- devised
- the
- ingenious,
- daring,
- and
- controversial
- plan
- to
- build
- a
- machine
- that
- would
- calculate
- at
- breathtaking
- speed
- and
- break
- the
- code
- in
- nearly
- real
- time.
- Together
- with
- the
- pioneering
- mathematician
- Max
- Newman,
- Flowers
- and
- his
- team
- produced—against
- the
- odds,
- the
- clock,
- and
- a
- resistant
- leadership—Colossus,
- the
- world’s
- first
- digital
- electronic
- computer,
- the
- machine
- that
- would
- help
- bring
- the
- war
- to
- an
- end.Drawing
- upon
- recently
- declassified
- sources,
- David
- A.
- Price’s
- Geniuses
- at
- War
- tells,
- for
- the
- first
- time,
- the
- full
- mesmerizing
- story
- of
- the
- great
- minds
- behind
- Colossus
- and
- chronicles
- the
- remarkable
- feats
- of
- engineering
- genius
- that
- marked
- the
- dawn
- of
- the
- digital age.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
