Stephen Budiansky

"A sweeping history of the NSA and its codebreaking achievements from World War II through the Cold War shares insights into the challenges faced by cryptanalysts and their role in some of the most complicated events of the twentieth century,"--NoveList.

Budiansky shows that, far from an indecisive and unnecessary conflict--as historians have long dismissed the War of 1812--this "forgotten war" had profound consequences that would change the course of naval warfare, America's place in the world, and the rules of international conflict forever. Never again would the great powers challenge the young republic's sovereignty in the aftermath of the stunning performance of America's navy and privateersmen....

A narrative account of Reconstruction-era violence documents vigilante attacks on African Americans and their white allies, in an analysis that traces the period through the careers of two Union officers, a Confederate general, a northern entrepreneur, and a former slave.

"The first major biography of the logician and mathematician whose incompleteness theorems helped launch a modern scientific revolution. Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true-- yet never provable-- continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel...

Discusses the interaction between people and horses, the horse as a social animal, its intelligence, abilities to communicate, athletic abilities, and physical evolution.