Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film The Imitation Game - Updated Edition

The 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 (19121954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decadesall 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 Turings royal pardon in 2013, is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life.Capturing both the inner and outer drama of Turings life, Andrew Hodges tells how Turings revolutionary idea of 1936the concept of a universal machinelaid 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 Turings 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 programall for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime.