★★★★★ Mathematician and code-breaker

Alan Turing: The Enigma

Andrew Hodges

Let me begin with the obvious: Alan Turing was a mathematician. I don't just mean that he was a guy whose day job was doing math. There is an understandable modern resistance to the practice of defining people by their jobs. Although, oddly, no one seems to have a problem with people who say, "I am an artist." In the same way, the statement "Turing was a mathematician" must be permitted. He was a mathematician, not just a guy who did math. If Turing had been born in fifth century Britain, he would have been a mathematician. Obviously, he wouldn't have established the theoretical basis of computer science or broken Nazi codes. He would have made discoveries, and those discoveries almost certainly would now be lost. Fortunately he met his time.

It follows that there's gonna be a lot of math in a good biography of Turing. I recently read Bruce Springsteen's autobiography Born to Run (it's good!), and there are pages upon pages about music. This is appropriate. Springsteen is a musician, in the same way that Turing is a mathematician, and it would be wrong for his biography to downplay music.

Andrew Hodges' Alan Turing: The Enigma doesn't avoid this truth. There's a lot of math in it. The difference between math and music is that most of us know a lot about music (or think we do), while Americans by and large seem to take pride in not understanding math. If math is hard for you, The Enigma will be hard for you. If you don't understand math, you will never understand Turing's genius, and that is sad. You may feel that this is unfair. It IS unfair ☹. Reality is often like that. Fortunately, though, there is something for you, the movie The Imitation Game based on this book. It's not as good as the book, but it's pretty good, still.

The Enigma is one of the best biographies I have ever read. In fact, thinking of it right now, I can't think of a better one. Obviously one of the reasons it's good is its subject. Turing was an extraordinarily creative thinker who had little patience for the conventional -- thus he struggled professionally. He was also a gay man at a time and place when that was literally illegal. He was fortunate, however, in that he found a place: Cambridge University and then Bletchley Park. Although he didn't carry a gun, he fought the German war machine as effectively as anyone. It's an exciting story, but ultimately a tragedy.

Hodges is sympathetic to Turing and his pursuits, without being blind to his faults. The Enigma is deeply researched, and Hodges knows his stuff. If you're a mathematician and want to understand Turing, you can't do better.

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