Alan Turing: The Enigma

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe official book behind the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira KnightleyIt is only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades-all before his suicide at age forty-one. This New York Times bestselling biography of the founder of computer science, with a new preface by the author that addresses Turing's royal pardon in 2013, is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life.Capturing both the inner and outer drama of Turing's life, Andrew Hodges tells how Turing's revolutionary idea of 1936-the concept of a universal machine-laid the foundation for the modern computer and how Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. The book also tells how this work was directly related to Turing's leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. At the same time, this is the tragic account of a man who, despite his wartime service, was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program-all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime.The inspiration for a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, Alan Turing: The Enigma is a gripping story of mathematics, computers, cryptography, and homosexual persecution.

List of Plates ixForeword by Douglas Hofstadter xiPreface xvPART ONE: THE LOGICAL1 Esprit de Corps to 13 February 1930 32 The Spirit of Truth to 14 April 1936 603 New Men to 3 September 1939 1414 The Relay Race to 10 November 1942 202BRIDGE PASSAGE to 1 April 1943 305PART TWO: THE PHYSICAL5 Running Up to 2 September 1945 3256 Mercury Delayed to 2 October 1948 3947 The Greenwood Tree to 7 February 1952 4918 On the Beach to 7 June 1954 574Postscript 665Author's Note 666Notes 680Acknowledgements 714Index 715