Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$9.99

Available instantly

Hardcover
$39.91

Paperback
$37.95

MP3 CD
$37.50

$37.95

FREE Returns

FREE delivery Wednesday, May 14 to Nashville 37217

Or fastest delivery Monday, May 12. Order within 2 hrs 29 mins

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$37.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

NJ Awesome Finds

Returns

30-day refund/replacement

Payment

Secure transaction

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$7.82

Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less See less

FREE delivery May 15 - 20 to Nashville 37217. Details

In stock

$$37.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from and sold by ThriftBooks-Seattle.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (26) from $7.82 & FREE Shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Andrew Hodges

Follow

Alan Turing: The Enigma Paperback – March 1, 2000

by Andrew Hodges (Author), Douglas Hofstadter (Author)

2,947 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$37.95","priceAmount":37.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"37","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"HSxopuf2x0Ym697f3YeetU2IZ5%2BEqg8I8OLRJwXbhJS6KGtBNJwDpdwAFhihkwdFQX%2FBDxg93wInXUG%2F8vFMxg03TAUT4Wcuqm7sTvivLiCFOK83olecGhgxSMuJXkkZl9JsqNtBNwe1CTxm9%2B7%2FODiooWDGF9%2BI8IJ39o4AdyJnvWPPQHMCWg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$7.82","priceAmount":7.82,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"82","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"HSxopuf2x0Ym697f3YeetU2IZ5%2BEqg8IutnUWvqCEgSqC3lc0YCoir8nFelU0aQ8UWm%2FE8Ra%2F1NAtoDe5xKwqBtrKfNQOC0y5lKFkYgUshDIQZXbq4N0X6jWv48GHRTOb3%2FKzo5fYvggfAU17xXKEZp0Y5%2BWD9830qVH6v37n3Fdi3d3ashaZg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Alan Turing (1912-54) was a British mathematician who made history. His breaking of the German U-boat Enigma cipher in World War II ensured Allied-American control of the Atlantic. But Turing's vision went far beyond the desperate wartime struggle. Already in the 1930s he had defined the concept of the universal machine, which underpins the computer revolution. In 1945 he was a pioneer of electronic computer design. But Turing's true goal was the scientific understanding of the mind, brought out in the drama and wit of the famous "Turing test" for machine intelligence and in his prophecy for the twenty-first century.

Drawn in to the cockpit of world events and the forefront of technological innovation, Alan Turing was also an innocent and unpretentious gay man trying to live in a society that criminalized him. In 1952 he revealed his homosexuality and was forced to participate in a humiliating treatment program, and was ever after regarded as a security risk. His suicide in 1954 remains one of the many enigmas in an astonishing life story.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Alan Turing died in 1954, but the themes of his life epitomize the turn of the millennium. A pure mathematician from a tradition that prided itself on its impracticality, Turing laid the foundations for modern computer science, writes Andrew Hodges:

Alan had proved that there was no "miraculous machine" that could solve all mathematical problems, but in the process he had discovered something almost equally miraculous, the idea of a universal machine that could take over the work of any machine.

During World War II, Turing was the intellectual star of Bletchley Park, the secret British cryptography unit. His work cracking the German's Enigma machine code was, in many ways, the first triumph of computer science. And Turing died because his identity as a homosexual was incompatible with cold-war ideas of security, implemented with machines and remorseless logic: "It was his own invention, and it killed the goose that laid the golden eggs."

Andrew Hodges's remarkable insight weaves Turing's mathematical and computer work with his personal life to produce one of the best biographies of our time, and the basis of the Derek Jacobi movie Breaking the Code. Hodges has the mathematical knowledge to explain the intellectual significance of Turing's work, while never losing sight of the human and social picture:

In this sense his life belied his work, for it could not be contained by the discrete state machine. At every stage his life raised questions about the connection (or lack of it) between the mind and the body, thought and action, intelligence and operations, science and society, the individual and history.

And Hodges admits what all biographers know, but few admit, about their subjects: "his inner code remains unbroken." Alan Turing is still an enigma. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Walker Books; 0 edition (March 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802775802
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802775801
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1270L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1 x 1 x 1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,137,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #86 in Scientist Biographies
- #802 in WWII Biographies
- #3,216 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
2,947 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Andrew Hodges

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Andrew Hodges (born 1949) is a British mathematician and author.

Hodges was born in London. Since the early 1970s, Hodges has worked on twistor theory, which is the approach to the problems of fundamental physics pioneered by Roger Penrose. He was also involved in gay liberation movement these times.

Hodges is best known as the author of Alan Turing: The Enigma, the story of the British computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing. Critically acclaimed at the time — Donald Michie in New Scientist called it ""marvellous and faithful"" — the book was chosen by Michael Holroyd as part of a list of 50 'essential' books (that were currently available in print) in The Guardian, 1 June 2002.

Alan Turing: The Enigma formed the basis of Hugh Whitemore's 1986 stageplay Breaking the Code, which was adapted by for Television in 1996, with Derek Jacobi as Turing. The book was later made into the 2014 film The Imitation Game directed by Morten Tyldum, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. The script for The Imitation Game won Graham Moore an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015.

Hodges is also the author of works that popularize science and mathematics.

He is a Tutorial Fellow in mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford University. Having taught at Wadham since 1986, Hodges was elected a Fellow in 2007, and was appointed Dean from start of the 2011/2012 academic year.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

2,947 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Review this product

Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find the book expertly written and thoroughly researched, with a fascinating story about Turing's life. The biography receives mixed reactions - while some consider it excellent, others find it dry and not suitable for general readers. Moreover, the technical content is criticized for being too detailed, and the pacing is slow for many readers.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

Readability Story quality Intelligence Depth Biography quality Pacing Math detail Length

279 customers mention "Readability"211 positive68 negative

Customers find the book well written and an excellent read, with one customer noting it is the most authoritative commentary on the subject.

"...Andrew Hodges does an incredible job of capturing Turing’s brilliance while also portraying the injustice and heartbreak he endured...." Read more

"...in the form of anecdotes from family and colleagues, letters written by Turing, and very fine detail of the time and society in which Alan..." Read more

"...As for this biography, it is very, very well done." Read more

"...This book went far beyond the movie, and I found it extraordinarily well written...." Read more

141 customers mention "Story quality"131 positive10 negative

Customers find the book's story fascinating and complete as a history, with one customer particularly appreciating it as a biography of a genius.

"...dives much deeper into his genius, struggles, and the immense impact he had on history...." Read more

"...Andrew Hodges does an excellent job in telling the story of Alan Turing and his "times"...." Read more

"...More than this, however, is the moving story of Turing's life and how it fit into the social and political life of England...." Read more

"...I learned many interesting things from the book, but a good editor would have cut out at least half of the fluff...." Read more

28 customers mention "Intelligence"28 positive0 negative

Customers praise Turing's intelligence, describing him as a brilliant and fascinating man with an incandescent mind, and one customer notes his exceptional contributions to artificial intelligence and computer technology.

"...government for "security." I also left with a profound respect for the author, the depth of his research, the compassionate view of Turing,..." Read more

"...Turing, finding it hard to picture him as a man, but deeply impressed by his mind, by his foresight and his insight, and I think that perhaps in..." Read more

"I liked the book. I got a reasonable balance of Turing's technical accomplishments and his life story. It is well referenced...." Read more

"...He was a very unassuming and very gifted man who was completely comfortable in the world of mathematics and made several very significant..." Read more

208 customers mention "Depth"133 positive75 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the depth of the book, with some finding it thoroughly researched and detailed, while others complain about excessive technical content that makes it cumbersome to read.

"...; I also left with a profound respect for the author, the depth of his research, the compassionate view of Turing, and his astute observations and..." Read more

"...The book provides extensive details of bombe operations and how they were applied...." Read more

"...about the development of math theories, and highly technical descriptions concerning cryptology (cryptography and cryptoanalysis as well)...." Read more

"There is much to like about this book: it provided a comprehensive explanation of the genesis of the idea of the Turing Machine..." Read more

99 customers mention "Biography quality"64 positive35 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the biography's quality, with some finding it insightful and excellent, while others describe it as very dry and not an easy or interesting read.

"...film gives a powerful glimpse into Turing’s life, the book dives much deeper into his genius, struggles, and the immense impact he had on history...." Read more

"...It was worth it. Turing was a fascinating person with a very rich story which Hodge’s provides in the form of anecdotes from family and..." Read more

"...More troubling is the utter boring chapter on Bletchley Park. How can this chapter be boring? Yet it is...." Read more

"...", and his time at Kings College, Cambridge, Hodges is a very literate biographer. I can judge this part because I know a fair bit of history...." Read more

22 customers mention "Pacing"8 positive14 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it fast-paced while others describe it as slow and not a quick read.

"...This was in 1941. In summary, this book was slow reading, even for someone interested in the man and the topic...." Read more

"This is a very detailed, very slow read...." Read more

"...It is SO slow reading that I finally had to skip big parts of it to get to the 'point.'..." Read more

"...a joy for advanced students of mathematics and physics but slow reading for a laymen like me...." Read more

91 customers mention "Math detail"9 positive82 negative

Customers find the book's mathematical content too detailed and heavy, with one customer noting that the electronic descriptions can be daunting.

"...YET, I often felt lost, uninterested or confused while reading the long discussions of different theories...." Read more

"...Some persons have written that the math in this book is intimidating...." Read more

"...Much of his mathematical and logical descriptions lacked clarity and bogged down the story - I wonder how many general readers were really able to..." Read more

"...Even as an engineer I found the mathematical descriptions rather tedious...." Read more

39 customers mention "Length"9 positive30 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's length, with some finding it very long and several hundred pages longer than expected, while others appreciate that it is quite a bit shorter.

"...When I say I “got through” I mean it. Being 540 pages of very small print, it was conquered over weeks. It was worth it...." Read more

"...is a mathematician, as well as homosexual, and dwells far too long and deeply on both subjects...." Read more

"...really able to follow them; the chapter lengths were, at times, interminable; the author presumed certain inside knowledge by the reader that he..." Read more

"This is a long book that goes into great detail on both of the major aspects of Turing life--his scientific contributions and his homosexuality..." Read more

Reviews with images

See all photos

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

SD
love love love
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2025
Verified Purchase

I read this book after watching The Imitation Game, and it took me on an emotional journey I wasn’t fully prepared for. While the film gives a powerful glimpse into Turing’s life, the book dives much deeper into his genius, struggles, and the immense impact he had on history. Andrew Hodges does an incredible job of capturing Turing’s brilliance while also portraying the injustice and heartbreak he endured.

Some parts were dense, especially the technical discussions, but the emotional weight of Turing’s story kept me engaged. By the end, I found myself in tears. This book is more than just a biography—it’s a testament to a man who changed the world and was tragically mistreated by it. Absolutely worth the read.

Read more

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Report
A.Glover
and very fine detail of the time and society in which Alan ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2014
Verified Purchase
I got through “The Enigma” only recently. When I say I “got through” I mean it. Being 540 pages of very small print, it was conquered over weeks.

It was worth it.

Turing was a fascinating person with a very rich story which Hodge’s provides in the form of anecdotes from family and colleagues, letters written by Turing, and very fine detail of the time and society in which Alan lived.

Alan’s childhood, in particular tugged at my heart strings, being familiar enough to my own experiences, and traits I see in my eldest son, I felt it easy to put myself in his shoes.

(Alan Turing was not, that we will ever know, autistic. It is important to NOT jump to that conclusion. Yet he was, most certainly, different.)

I found it parts amusing, and parts heart wrenching. I also found myself angry that we didn’t learn about this man in school.

My only criticism of the book is that often times the book departs away from Alan’s story into long tangents about the development of math theories, and highly technical descriptions concerning cryptology (cryptography and cryptoanalysis as well). As a person born the 1970’s, I appreciated the historical explanation of the significance of cryptology to the war, and the attention to the intricacy of Mr. Turing’s projects. YET, I often felt lost, uninterested or confused while reading the long discussions of different theories. I think much of the book was written for people with backgrounds in maths and cryptology, not the average reader.

I hear that the movie "The Imitation Game" (screenplay based on this book) has been criticized for not enough explanation or being simplistic. I understand the desire to not bore or hopelessly confuse the audience. The important part is Mr. Turing as a person, which I hope they get right. If early reviews mean anything, it seems they have.

I will hold on to this book, and recommend others read it, skipping past the overly technical parts if need be. You may also need a magnifying glass.

Read more

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
gammyjill
Did he have to "bite the apple"?
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2014
Verified Purchase
British author Andrew Hodges' biography, "Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film "The Imitation Game" (now that's a mouthful!) is going to appeal to a self-selected readership: history readers and math readers. I doubt anyone else is going to pick up this book and read it for the fun of it. So, I am pitching my review to those historians and mathematicians who will read this book.

Andrew Hodges does an excellent job in telling the story of Alan Turing and his "times". Beginning with his early life in England as one of two sons of an India Service official and his wife, his years in "public school", and his time at Kings College, Cambridge, Hodges is a very literate biographer. I can judge this part because I know a fair bit of history. What I cannot say with any certainty is if Hodges gets the math part correctly. I am a math-moron and I could sort of follow his writing. If the reader is good in math, he should have no problem in understanding what Alan Turing accomplished in both the World War 2 and after. As the master code breaker at Bletchley Park, Turing broke German cypher codes from their Enigma machine and was instrumental in helping save the North Atlantic allied shipping from German Uboats. He was also considered one of the fathers of computer science, working after the war until his suicide in 1954.

The "death by poisoned apple" in my review's title refers to the method of suicide Turing used. Alan Turing was a homosexual in a time when homosexuality was illegal. He pled guilty of "gross indecency" in a British court in 1952 and rather than serve time in jail, he chose to take "hormonal" treatment to reduce his libido. He found the treatments a life-altering and they, along with losing his government security clearance, may have contributed to his decision to commit suicide.

Alan Turing was treated very shabbily in life and in death, many honors were denied him. He and his contributions to computer science and mathematics began to be recognised in 1966 when the "Turing Award" was first awarded by the Association for Computer Machinery. Other honors - both by governmental and collegiate officials - have followed, as well as plays, movies, and biographies of Alan Turing.

Andrew Hodges' biography was originally issued in the 1990's. It is now being reissued as an adjunct to the movie, "The Imitation Game", starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing and Kiera Knightly as fellow-code breaker, Joan Clarke. In the previews of the movie, Knightly is shown as the "love interest" of Cumberbatch. In reality, the two were engaged during their work at Bletchley but broke it off short of marriage. I'm curious to see how the movie handles Turing's homosexuality, but that's for another review. As for this biography, it is very, very well done.

Read more

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

アホかいな
出版より35年後の読み方は？
Reviewed in Japan on April 30, 2018
Verified Purchase

この本、83年の初版本を評者は持っていて、拾い読みしたはずなのだが、いくら探しても見つからなかったので、また新版を買って読み直した。映画の公開に合わせて新版を出したことが露骨にわかる装丁がいただけないが、それは無視して内容の評に入ろう。最初にお断りしておくが、本書はすでに多くの評者が絶賛しており、基本的にそれに対して異論はない。しかし、初版の出版から35年も経つと、さすがに「後知恵」で「これはどうだろうか」という疑問点もいくつか出てくる。そういうところに的を絞った評になるので「批判的」な調子になる箇所はご容赦願いたい。そういった批判は、本書がすでにチューリング伝の優れた「古典」であることを当然認めて評価した上での「ないものねだり」のたぐいであるかもしれない。また、本書の邦訳が2015年に出て、多くの一般読者にも通読が容易になったのも喜ばしいことであり、評者も邦訳のおかげで、原書併用で一週間ほどで再読できたことはありがたい。

本書の特筆すべき功績は、チューリングの人と業績を共感的に描いて蘇らせたことに加え、電子計算機の誕生を巡る誤った歴史的見解を書き換えることに多大な貢献をしたことであろう。万能計算機としてのコンピュータ、その直接の構想の「生みの親」は、チューリングであって、つい20年ほど前までの「通説」だったフォン・ノイマンではない。フォン・ノイマンはチューリングの1936年論文をしばらく無視していたが、計算機制作に関わるようになって以後、チューリングの構想を評価したらしい（167、489）。例えば、フォン・ノイマンがチューリングのためにプリンストンの高等研究所滞在を延長する推薦状を書いた1937年6月には、36年論文に言及さえしてない（167）。「構想」と断ったのは、電子計算機という名前にふさわしい「現物」を作ったのは別の人達の手柄として認めるという別問題があるからである。「The Universal Computer」というタイトルで2000年に本を出版したマーチン・デイヴィス（評者のレビューを参照されたい）の見解に評者は感銘を受けたが、今にして思えば、この本でのチューリングに関する記述は、ほとんどホッジス本からの引用、あるいは要約みたいなものだった（もちろん、ほかに評価すべき見解も含まれているが）。

本書では、チューリングが戦時の「エニグマ」（ドイツ軍の暗号）解読の仕事から始まって電子計算機の設計や制作に関わっていく過程も克明に追跡されているので、米国で開発されたENIAC やEDVACを題材とした「計算機の歴史」を補って訂正する題材がふんだんに含まれている。とくに、前半部分、ドイツ軍のエニグマ暗号を解読する仕事については、かなり詳しい解説と分析、そして図解もあって優れている。ただ一つ不満なのは、暗号解読の有力なヒントとなった”crib”（邦訳ではそのまま「クリブ」とされている）についての丁寧な説明が見当たらないこと。

後半部分では、チューリングが開発に関わったACE（Automatic Computing Engine）も含め、イギリスでの計算機開発の過程がかなり詳しく辿られているが、前半部での丁寧な解説に比べて読みにくいし、図解も皆無で、これでは一般の読者には理解が困難である。例えば、第6章のタイトルにも出てくる「水銀遅延線」、これは米国のエニアックチームのエッカートの創案になるもので、当時のコンピュータの「記憶」部分に不可欠だったものだが、ろくに解説せずにチューリングのアイデアと対比させるものだから、読者はお手上げとなる。せめて一枚でも図を入れていたなら、と惜しまれる。また、本書がもともと1983年の出版だということもあって、コンピュータの歴史に関わる記述としては、欠落する部分（その後の歴史的研究成果）もある。読者はそれを心に留めて読んだほうがいい。

後半部分のハイライトは、チューリングの同性愛事件の顛末と有罪判決後の追跡である。ここは、読む人によって評価が大きく変わるかもしれない。「チューリングに寄り添う姿勢」という肯定的評価をよく見かけるが、読者は「事実経過」をまず押さえて読むべきであろう。間に、あるいは後に、延々と入る著者の「推察」とも「分析」とも判じかねるネチネチとした記述、評者自身は辟易してフォローしかねた。これは「著者自身の思い入れ」を展開した記述ではないのか？評者の意見では、ここはもっと「事実」や手紙などの「文書」や「証言」に基づけ、それらに「語らしめ」て、「思い入れ」をできるだけ排除する記述にしてほしかった。

Read more
Report
Translate review to English
Christian Nugue
the dawn of the computer age
Reviewed in France on February 17, 2015
Verified Purchase
What we have here is a superb 500 pages biography written by fellow mathematician Andrew Hodges who spent years accessing the available documents and interviewing the surviving witnesses.
It is reissued, 30 years later, with a new introduction that gives us a sense of the historical role played by Turing in the ushering in of a new age.
As a mathematician, Hodges has what it takes to address the core issue: how did a single genius succeed in breaking the utterly complex Enigma code, thereby contributing to the defeat of the Nazi regime ? Focusing on this core issue implies much more knowledge and insight than focusing, like the corresponding film does, on the biographical elements that don't bring much. Fascinating story by a fascinating author !

Read more
Report
gianluca
ottimo libro
Reviewed in Italy on September 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
ottimo libro scorrevole spedizione e prodotto eccellente nonostante l'ordine fatto su warehouse

Read more
Report
Translate review to English
Lindosland
A Fascinating story, but a blinkered view of Turing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is a book that tackles two aspects of Alan Turing's life; his logical thinking and mathematical ability, and his personal life and death. On the former it delves into great detail, and is an excellent account of what Turing did, his lifelong fascination with cyphers and how the Enigma encoded messages were famously cracked, at various stages, with his help, by the workers at Bletchley Park. This stuff requires considerable effort by the reader who wants to understand fully, and many readers will not want to go very far with it, happy to know only the outline facts, but it is good that Hodges, a mathematician, has put it all down for reference. Hodges the mathematician, also does a good job of putting across Turing's thinking and attitude to life. Turing became interested in the problem of life, and the question of whether human beings are machines very early on, after reading a basic book on the subject, and his actions were motivated by his intense need to think in a 'pure' way, without the distractions of everyday life, and human relationships which, to his mind, are too often illogical. This is a better way to see Turing than to simply say, as is current fashion, 'he was Autistic', or 'he had Asperger's', or even 'he was gifted'. I think he just taught himself to think well, and sought to keep his mind uncluttered by everyday modes of thought.

When it comes to Turing's personal life and death though, I think Hodges is the wrong man to listen to. Himself a homosexual, like Turing, it might be thought that he is in a good position to understand the man, and in some ways he is, but it is important to realise that this book was written almost a quarter of a century ago, in a Britain that was perhaps closer to the the Britain Turing knew than the one we now view him from. Ten years earlier, Hodges had written the 'Gay Liberation Pamphlet with Downcast Gays' (available on the internet) - he had a chip on his shoulder and leaves us in no doubt that he considered homosexual men to be downtrodden members of society who needed to throw off their chains. The Alan Turing we are given in the book is largely portrayed as such, and the reader is led to the conclusion that he killed himself as a result of society's unwarranted ill treatment of a man who should be seen as a hero. It's probably largely down to Hodges that Turing came to be given a posthumous royal pardon and apology from Prime Minister Gordon Brown quite recently, and the widely acclaimed 2014 film 'The Imitation Game', appears to be very effectively shaping public perception of Turing as something of a martyr. I think Hodges has given us a very one-sided view of Turing, a view from the world of the resentful homosexual.

I can empathise with Hodges point of view, but it is a blinkered one, and Turing was not like Hodges. Turing, from the evidence available, did not complain, did not concern himself with whether he was oppressed sexually, he just got on with living his life, tackling the many tractable problems that fascinated him, as best he could in a world he did not profess to understand, or particularly care about. What will stand out, I suggest, to most people is the fact that Turing, was careless in forming sexual liasons which were likely to lead him into trouble. We cannot help but wonder what discussions took place between his 'minders' (for surely he must have been carefully watched by the security services he was so vital to) who must surely have regarded him as a huge liability. In his pamphlet, Hodges has much to say about the difficulties faced by homosexual men who were unable to have a sexual life without breaking the law back then, but does not enter into any meaningful discussion about respecting the society they live in and it's values. He tells us that, free from the shackles of marriage rituals and conventions many homosexual men want only to enjoy sex with multiple partners without commitment; that they may keep friendship and sex separate, with different people. This is something many heterosexuals would like too, but the world doesn't work like that, and promiscuity leads to problems, which include jealousy and very real potential for blackmail or leaking of secrets. He also tells us, in this book, that Turing, like many homosexuals, finds himself especially attracted to the mass of working men, and that this was one of the attractions of Manchester. Those watching over him must have been terrified when they saw him, holder of the nation's greatest secrets, getting involved with such men, and then becoming victim to a bizarre break-in involving them.

The official verdict on Turing's death was suicide, but while this was a verdict that suited Hodges, it was one that many who knew him, especially his mother, refused to accept. In a normal case of suicide some supporting evidence of motive would be expected; depression, problems, ill health, but none of these applied. Right up to his death Turing was active and motivated, and jovial with friends. The hormone treatment, which he had chosen rather than prison so that he could get on with life, had been terminated a year previous, and he was working on new projects, some top secret, and running. The possibility that he was murdered seems a very obvious alternative, and the fact that a founder member of the Bletchley Park trust, Roger Bristow, is now claiming that the coroner wrote a note saying, 'death appears to be due to violence' is cause to reconsider Hodges conclusion. Would society still regard a man like Turing, who happened to have the skills it needed to help the war effort, as a hero, even if it turned out that he lead a hedonistic and promiscous life that made him a huge security liability and put the country in danger, while many lesser men, who had not signed the official secrets act, were living quiet lives and heeding the constant message that 'careless talk costs lives'? We may discover more if Bristow publishes his book.

This is a book full of fascinating facts, all the more so for me because, although the name Turing has been well known to me since an early age, I never quite realised how close I came to his legacy. Seeking a job on leaving University, I got an interview with Elliot computers before taking up a job with Ferranti, both early players in computer development. Made redundant the day I was due to start, I joined the Post Office research centre at Dollis Hill, working on AI, pattern recognition for postcodes, with 'Doc' Alan Coombs as joint head of division - he had worked on 'Colossus' after Tommy Flowers but of course we were never told that! Oh for a time machine, to travel back to 1968 and venture more into the the corridors of Dollis Hill, where I wonder if I might have just come across traces of that Colossus work. As an electronics engineer I knew well the work of Shannon (information and noise) and Nyquist (stability criteria), both of whom Turing met in the US. Much later, I would read 'On Agression', by Konrad Lorenz, founder of ethology, who it turns out Turing also met, and my interest would turn to genetics and morphology (Turing's last project). But then, if I had a time machine, I might urge Turing to talk to Lorenz about imprinting, and society, and 'Civilised Man's Seven Deadly Sins'. Turing's ideas about life were very simplistic; he was interested in hormones for example, and their role in sex, but he seems to have lacked any concept of society, altruism, pair-bonding, or imprinting. Lorenz knew all about such things, but would Turing have been receptive to such ideas and able to understand them? If he had, he might have marvelled at Konrad's experiments with geese (they came to regard him as mother and mate), and wondered whether his own homosexuality might be the result of faulty imprinting at key receptive stages in life. He might also have realised that his question, 'can computers think, feel, love' needed more than pure logic to answer - in needed an understanding of drives, instincts, triggers, and the role these played in the evolution of the brain for survival - all Lorenz's domain. Armed with such knowledge he might have gone on to discover far greater things than how to make a computer - that was dependant more on developments in memory and processing than on logic, and was best left to the engineers in the end. He might have been the man to crack the workings of the brain; something we are still a long way from achieving, and he would have been fascinated by developments in morphology based on chemical gradients (which he was experimenting with), and in Epigenetics as a form of temporary storage within the genome. But then, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and we have no time machine:-)

Read more
Report
Pieter Klaassen
Looked like an often read secons hand book
Reviewed in the Netherlands on April 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
The book looked dirty and a bit scuffed up. Not like a new book, more like an often read second hand book. The content of the book however is excelent, so I encourage you to go read this book. Just don't buy it here

Read more
Report

See more reviews

Amazon Prime includes:

Follow the author

Alan Turing: The Enigma Paperback – March 1, 2000

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product details

Videos

About the author

Andrew Hodges

Customer reviews

Review this product

Customers say

Select to learn more

Images in this review

Reviews with images

Part of my idea string that lead me to inventing ...

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

5.0 out of 5 stars love love love

4.0 out of 5 stars and very fine detail of the time and society in which Alan ...

5.0 out of 5 stars Did he have to "bite the apple"?

Top reviews from other countries

4.0 out of 5 stars 出版より35年後の読み方は？

5.0 out of 5 stars the dawn of the computer age

5.0 out of 5 stars ottimo libro

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating story, but a blinkered view of Turing

2.0 out of 5 stars Looked like an often read secons hand book

love love love

and very fine detail of the time and society in which Alan ...

Did he have to "bite the apple"?

出版より35年後の読み方は？

the dawn of the computer age

ottimo libro

A Fascinating story, but a blinkered view of Turing

Looked like an often read secons hand book