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Codebreaking vs La science du secret: Which Should You Read?

Two cybersecurity books on Cryptography, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.

Beginner

4/52023

Codebreaking

A Practical Guide

Elonka Dunin, Klaus Schmeh

Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh teach classical cryptanalysis through real, unsolved ciphers, from 19th-century newspaper personal ads to wartime telegrams, using free tools like CrypTool 2.

Intermediate

4/51998

La science du secret

Jacques Stern

A lucid popular-science history of cryptography by Jacques Stern, one of France's most eminent cryptographers — from classical ciphers to public-key and the science of secrecy.

Read this if

Hobbyist codebreakers and security people who want the historical and puzzle-solving side of cryptography, not the mathematical theory. Dunin maintains the web's reference list of unsolved ciphers and Schmeh is the most-published cryptology author alive, so the case studies are the real, still-open ones.

Curious readers who want an authoritative yet accessible story of cryptography, written by a leading researcher rather than a populariser. A French counterpart to The Code Book, with more of a mathematician's insight.

Skip this if

Readers who want modern applied cryptography, algorithm design, or anything about securing systems; this is classical/historical cipher-breaking (substitution, polyalphabetic, transposition), not AES or TLS. Pair with Serious Cryptography or Cryptography Engineering for that side.

Engineers wanting implementation guidance or modern (post-2000) primitives; it's a 1998 popular-science history, not a deployment manual.

Key takeaways

Teaches cryptanalysis on real, unsolved historical ciphers rather than textbook exercises, which keeps the puzzle-solving stakes genuine.
CrypTool 2 and other free software get hands-on coverage, so the skills transfer to actually attacking a ciphertext, not just reading about it.
Several of the book's case studies remain unsolved mysteries today; readers are explicitly invited to take a crack at them.

Popular cryptography history written by a top-tier cryptographer (Stern, ENS), so the science is impeccable.
Traces the arc from classical ciphers to public-key — the conceptual leaps, not the code.
A French equivalent of The Code Book with a researcher's eye; dated on modern primitives but timeless on fundamentals.

How they compare

Codebreaking and La science du secret are both rated 4/5 in our catalog. Pick by topic preference and reading style rather than by rating.

Codebreaking is pitched at beginner level. La science du secret is pitched at intermediate level. Read the easier one first if you're not yet comfortable with the topic.

Codebreaking and La science du secret both cover Cryptography, History, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

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