David Kahn

historian

David Kahn, a historian of intelligence, particularly of communications intelligence, or codebreaking, is widely regarded as the world’s leading expert on the history of codes and cryptology. His thousand-page *The Codebreakers* has been called a "classic" and the "standard"; *The Codebreakers* tells the story of secret writing from the hieroglyphs through the Enigma to the cryptosystems that make e-commerce possible. Kahn is also the author of *Hitler’s Spies*, *Seizing the Enigma*, and *Kahn on Codes*. In addition to his books, Kahn has written scholarly and popular articles on the subject of codes, cryptology and ciphers in publications ranging from *The New York Times* to *Playboy*, from the *Journal of Strategic Studies* to the *Encyclopedia Americana*. Kahn holds the Ph.D. in modern history from Oxford University. He has taught courses on modern political and military intelligence at Yale and Columbia and has testified before Congress on policy matters dealing with cryptology.