Review 227: Ethel Rosenberg

Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars



Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a notorious couple that were electrocuted in June 1953. The author, Anne Sebba, focuses on Ethel and posits that she was murdered by the state and likely innocent, and did not deserve death. Ethel was betrayed, by her family and the state. Once could say she was a victim from the beginning, being raised by a mother, Tessie, that never showed her love, and instead poured her emotions to Ethel’s younger brother David. The same David who names her and Julius in order to reduce his own sentence of the same crime of giving secrets away to Russia.

Ethel was a smart woman, trapped in the 1940’s image of what a woman was allowed to do, not much beyond being a wife and mother. Ethel was determined to be a better mother to her two children and believed in new parenting methods.

Why she didn’t speak, other than pleading the fifth, is a question probed in this book. Some answers are given, but it’s unknown fully of her motives, leaving the question open if she was guilty or not, or at least knowing about her husband’s activities.

A fascinating book into the WWII era and the beginning of the Cold War. Of a family thrown into the headlines and forever embedded as part of the American culture from the anti-communist sentiment and Cold War. I particularly enjoyed the ending, the “Many ways of imagining and seeing Ethel,” with books, plays and a recreation of the trial, which remain part of Ethel’s legacy around the world.

I listed to most of the book as an audio narrated by Orlagh Cassidy. The narration is done well and keeps you in the book. Couldn’t ask for a better narration for this story.



Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing an advance audio copy.

Thanks also to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.