This is an excellent book. I read it when it first came out and just got the updated edition for my Kindle. Sam Roberts is a terrific writer. Clearly well researched, the story he puts together is easy to follow and easy to read.
I've read a lot about the Rosenbergs and the Red Scare. It sure wasn't one of America's finer times. I'm against the death penalty so I definitely don't think they should have been electrocuted.
About the Rosenbergs and the other spies, I have no sympathy for their stand, for their actions, for their lying. Jerks is the word that comes to mind. So principled, HA. They fight Hitler but support Stalin. Slight error in judgement, logic, decency there. The sanctimonious prose of the Rosenbergs supporters through the years is so hard to read quietly. Good grief. They were traitors, they were spies, they supported a totalitarian government that murdered millions, a fact that was hardly a secret.
The Rosenbergs were self-absorbed, pumped up with self-righteousness, all of which came through in their hectoring, holier-than-thou writings during the trial and incarceration. Hopefully they were nicer as parents. As defendants, they were so focused on martyrdom, they lost sight of honesty, decency and their job as parents.
The government behaved badly in shaping the testimony the way it did and making a mockery of the court system. That's wrong. What would have happened if the government had released the background information they had that proved the spying? It would have prevented the huge gulf that developed over the years between supporters of the government side and those on the side of the Rosenbergs (and other spies). It simply wasn't necessary. The government made a little god out of secrecy. And the result was a bunch of spies were treated like martyrs.
And the Rosenbergs behaved badly by lying and pontificating. What would have happened if they'd told the truth? Would the government have done a deal? They weren't simply pawns, they were actors in this drama. They had both the responsibility and the power to do things differently than what they did, most definitely before the arrest, but also after it. I just can't warm up to a bunch of self-righteous liars. They were spies. That's the truth. They did betray their country. That's a fact. Looking at what they did and said, they sure seemed to be courting martyrdom. Their goal didn't seem to have anything to do with a sensible outcome, one that took into consideration their children's future.
The brother is also self-absorbed. He definitely gave up his sister. I sure wonder about that. I think, to some extent, his explanation that he was protecting his family and it was Julius' job to do whatever it took to protect his has validity. Julius made a decision to make his spying and his deceit the most important thing in his life. Not his wife, not his children. I have no respect for that. He presented himself as if he was being brave and self-sacrificing. But he was behaving like what he conceived a hero from a comic book, a Russian one I guess, would do. It wasn't reality, it was his chance to live out his fantasy life, the chance to die a hero's death, instead of working with what he had, was offered, to find a way out at least for his wife. All that posturing, when what was clearly called for was grounded, mature, loving, responsible behavior.
The fact that his wife went down with him didn't seem to matter to him. I like Ilene Philipson's book about Ethel. It's a real attempt to make her human. (She was ADD, I think, as were the brother and their father.) What was needed in all this was an adult to say grow up, accept your responsibilities, admit your actions, and get on with things. Quit the posturing, the pontificating.
Well, that's my take on the Rosenbergs and the other spies.
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Linda Newcombe
... thought it would be interesting unfortunately it is a good story badly told rambling and lacking any
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2014