In New York in 1950, FBI agents arrested Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for conspiracy to commit espionage, an affair FBI J. Edgar Hoover labeled the "crime of the century." After three years of appeals they were executed, making them the only American civilians put to death for conspiracy to commit espionage and turning their two sons into orphans. The Harry Truman administration charged the couple based on the assumptions that the Rosenbergs need to be held accountable for giving atomic bomb technology to the Soviets.
The Rosenberg case tested the limits of the federal government's new Cold War propaganda apparatus. Both the Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower administrations struggled to sell the guilt of the two spies and use the case to sell democracy and freedom overseas. However, citizens around the world did not always agree with the United States' execution of the Rosenbergs, which diminished the standing of the country in the eyes of the world, particularly so soon after the death of Stalin and the removal of the face of evil global Communism.
In this first book, Lori Clune uses newly discovered State Department documents to demonstrate dissent to the Rosenberg decision from 80 cities in 48 countries in the early 1950s. American diplomats overseas observed and reported protests, petitions, letters of support, and newspaper editorials back to the State Department, along with policy recommendations. This project tells a new narrative of the Rosenbergs by transcending questions of guilt and innocence, adding a transnational component to the story and weaving the case into the Korean War, the death of Stalin, and the Cold War more broadly. While the Rosenbergs have been the subject of endless debate and discussion for half a century, this book offers an original approach to the topic, one that will no doubt add fodder to the politically passionate and provide a significant case study for those interested in the US relationship with the world.
Industry Reviews
"Executing the Rosenbergs is a highly readable, meticulously researched, and fascinating account of the case and execution of husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were tried for espionage. Historian Lori Clune seeks particularly to highlight international reaction to the case and how the US government responded. Uncovering State Department documents from the National Archives, Clune is able to weave a fascinating story about global reaction
to the case. For general readers not familiar with the case beyond the names and the accusations of atomic espionage, the book serves as a wonderful introduction not only to the Rosenbergs but also to the Cold
War anti-communist hysteria during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations....The overall strength of this excellent book is the rich detail it provides on individuals and the episode in general. Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"Lori Clune has produced a massively-documented book...Clune's approach, in terms of showing how American diplomats and people in foreign countries responded to events, adds a new dimension to the story."--Jim Burns, Northern Review of Books
"Clune details the facts comprehensively with great care and sensitivity...[A] measured and engaged history of the case and its immediate context, correcting many of the errors of previous histories."--Anders Stephanson, Diplomatic History
"Executing the Rosenbergs is a highly readable, meticulously researched, and fascinating account of the case and execution of husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were tried for espionage...Clune is able to weave a fascinating story about global reaction to the case...This book will fascinate those interested in the specifics of the case...[T]he overall strength of this excellent book is the rich detail it provides on individuals and the
episode in general...Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"Lori Clune...has pulled off the remarkable feat of shining important new light on an old story. Clune's views are deeply held, yet her treatment is never polemical or shrill."--Andrew Preston, Times Literary Supplement
"Although the Rosenberg library is voluminous, the latest addition, Executing the Rosenbergs , has an original perspective Itt focuses not on guilt or innocence but on the response of two American administrations to the worldwide outcry the case inspired."--Miriam Schneir, The Nation
"Lori Clune's gripping monograph shows how the United States attempted to 'spin' the Rosenberg case and the couples' executions in the Cold War propaganda campaign of the early 1950s, and failed. Clune's impeccable research not only exposes Washington's efforts at shaping overseas reactions and coverage of the Rosenbergs' fate; it also points to the contradictory response the case engendered within the government itself as officials struggled to downplay
critical coverage abroad and defuse an international movement that grew to include nearly 50 countries whose citizens were passionately concerned about their draconian sentencing."--Katherine Sibley, author
of Red Spies in America: Stolen Secrets and the Dawn of the Cold War
"Do we need another book on the Rosenbergs? We need this one--Lori Clune's remarkable account of how the United States lost the moral upper ground during one of the Cold War's most important crusades is a must read for anyone interested in the Eisenhower presidency, global activism, Cold War politics, and espionage."--Kathryn Statler, University of San Diego
"Making thorough use of previously undiscovered State Department files, Lori Clune provides us with a long-overdue first study of the global reactions to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, one of the most notorious events of the Cold War era. In so doing, she makes a significant contribution not only to our understanding of the Rosenberg case but the Cold War more generally. And by showing the range and scope of responses over space and time, she
convincingly demonstrates that the execution had far-reaching consequences."--Moshik Temkin, Harvard University
"Balanced, yet provocative, Executing the Rosenbergs tells a compelling story about the global ramifications of one of the Cold War's most enduring controversies. Readers familiar with the tale of the Cold War's most famous atomic spies will learn much from the wealth of new insights and information Lori Clune brings to the table. Newcomers to the Rosenberg case will find in these pages a gripping, compelling, and accessible narrative--one free of
the polarizing tint that has colored other historical writings on the case."--Kenneth Osgood, author of Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad
"It is not often that an academic book reads like a novel, yet that is precisely the case for Executing the Rosenbergs....Clune has especially succeeded at embedding the Rosenberg trial within the larger, worldwide drama of the Cold War."-Harold Ticktin, Jewish Currents
"Executing the Rosenbergs opens new lines of inquiry about the red scare and its transnational implications."-Robbie Lieberman, Journal of American History
"An excellent addition to the historiography of the early Cold War, and a fine teaching resource for college classrooms...[that] can be applied in many contexts. The book is fertile ground for students to learn how propaganda influences our assumptions about the nature of guilt and innocence. It is also a good tool for debate....All readers will like that Clune's narrative takes just 167 pages before endnotes, a brevity which is admirable in a discipline where
historians...tend to overwhelm the reader with information. Yet Clune still manages the difficult task of writing a thrilling, yet substantive history, interweaving multiple narrative threads in a key
chapter of the early Cold War."-Christopher Foss, The History Teacher
"Clune compels us to delve more deeply into the uneasy relationship between the sort of values that the United States claimed to stand for during the Cold War and the sort of actions that were all too often a result of the growing national security state."-Bevan Sewell, Passport
