Article ID: CBB455159316

Contextualizing Colossus: Codebreaking Technology and Institutional Capabilities (July 2020)

unapi

The Bletchley Park codebreaking center sits close to the heart of Britain’s collective sense of historical greatness. Historians view it as a highly successful but largely ad-hoc institutional response to novel cryptographic challenges, depicting both its reliance on elite mathematicians and a large labor force as ruptures with peacetime practice. In contrast, this article suggests that Bletchley Park’s success relied on institutional capabilities established in the prewar British state. It focuses on the celebrated “Colossus” electronic codebreaking devices as one element of a highly successful institutional collaboration between Bletchley Park, where they were used, and the Post Office research station at Dollis Hill, where they were designed and built. Correcting previous accounts, this article shows that this partnership was sponsored at the highest levels of government and supported by managers on both sides.

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Authors & Contributors
Hassan Habibi Gharakheili
Fitsanakis, Joseph
Tanya Karliychuk
Moa Carlsson
Narelle Clark
Foley, Jillian
Concepts
Computers and computing
Technology and government
World War II
Cryptography
Mathematics
Codes and cryptography
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Czechoslovakia
Tennessee (U.S.)
Wales
Japan
Institutions
Ethereum
United States. National Security Agency
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