The execution of Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 must rank “among the most horribly botched in human history”, said Jake Kerridge in The Daily Telegraph: sentenced to die with her husband Julius for spying for the Soviet Union, she took four-and-a-half minutes to die in the electric chair.
It was also, Anne Sebba argues with “exemplary clarity”, a miscarriage of justice fuelled by anti-communist hysteria and male chauvinism. The crucial evidence against her was supplied by her estranged brother David Greenglass – also implicated in the passing of atomic secrets to the Russians – in return for a reduced sentence; and even he testified that she had done little more than type up the information. Yet because she refused to play the part of a weak and helpless woman in court, she was branded a termagant who had masterminded the operation.
Sebba has taken a well-known story and skilfully breathed fresh life into it, said Andrew Lownie in The Oldie. This is a “powerful” biography of a woman caught in a system determined to make an example of her. The FBI knew its case against her was weak, but brought it to put pressure on her husband. Sebba persuasively argues that Ethel’s punishment was disproportionate, though her attempt to downplay Ethel’s guilt altogether “will strain credulity in some quarters”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
You can say that again, said Oliver Kamm in The Times. This book is “an intellectual disgrace”. Julius Rosenberg was of great value to Soviet intelligence: he passed on a series of important military secrets. And the evidence is clear that Ethel conspired with him. The trial was certainly tainted, and the punishment was “barbarous”, but the Rosenbergs were willing servants of an appalling regime. “Theirs was no equivalent of the Dreyfus case.”
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 304pp £20; The Week Bookshop £15.99
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
-
Massacre in the favela: Rio’s police take on the gangsIn the Spotlight The ‘defence operation’ killed 132 suspected gang members, but could spark ‘more hatred and revenge’
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Codeword: November 15, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?
Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Train Dreams pulses with ‘awards season gravitas’The Week Recommends Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton star in this meditative period piece about a working man in a vanished America
-
Middleland: Rory Stewart’s essay collection is a ‘triumph’The Week Recommends The Rest is Politics co-host compiles his fortnightly columns written during his time as an MP
-
‘Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America’ and ‘Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary’feature The culture divide in small-town Ohio and how the internet usurped dictionaries
-
6 homes with fall foliagefeature An autumnal orange Craftsman, a renovated Greek Revival church and an estate with an orchard
-
Bugonia: ‘deranged, extreme and explosively enjoyable’Talking Point Yorgos Lanthimos’ film stars Emma Stone as a CEO who is kidnapped and accused of being an alien
-
The Revolutionists: a ‘superb and monumental’ bookThe Week Recommends Jason Burke ‘epic’ account of the plane hijackings and kidnappings carried out by extremists in the 1970s
-
Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
