Love The Rosenberg File? Readers share 100 books like The Rosenberg File...

By Ronald Radosh , Joyce Milton ,

Here are 100 books that The Rosenberg File fans have personally recommended if you like The Rosenberg File. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Merle Nygate Author Of The Righteous Spy

From my list on spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve written and script edited in a lot of different genres, from factual drama to sitcom, children’s TV to fantasy. I’ve always loved spy stories, and I’ve always wanted to write one. Recently, at the University of East Anglia I studied for an MA in Crime Fiction, and that’s where I finally got the chance to study espionage and write a spy novel myself. I hope you enjoy my selection of books if you haven’t already read them. Or even if you have. They’re all so good that I feel like re-reading them right now. 

Merle's book list on spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves

Merle Nygate Why Merle loves this book

This is a non-fiction book but it reads like a novel and explores one of the great mysteries of the spy world: how on earth did Kim Philby manage to betray not only his country but also his friends over so many years? 

A former spy I had the privilege of interviewing described Philby as a shit, so maybe there’s the answer. I think this is a terrific read, and although Macintyre probably isn’t a spy, like Deighton, he knows them. 

By Ben Macintyre ,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked A Spy Among Friends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War.

Philby's two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone, and then discovered they had not known him at all. This is a story of intimate duplicity; of loyalty, trust and treachery, class and conscience; of an ideological battle waged by men with cut-glass accents and…


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Book cover of The Beatles and the 1960s: Reception, Revolution, and Social Change

The Beatles and the 1960s by Kenneth L. Campbell,

The Beatles are widely regarded as the foremost and most influential music band in history and their career has been the subject of many biographies. Yet the band's historical significance has not received sustained academic treatment to date. In The Beatles and the 1960s, Kenneth L. Campbell uses The…

Book cover of Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case

R. Bruce Craig Author Of Treasonable Doubt

From my list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad.

Why am I passionate about this?

I probably owe my passion for espionage history to none other than a singular encounter with the infamous Alger Hiss! When writing my doctoral dissertation, I had the opportunity to interview him. I spent weeks preparing questions, and for the most part, the interviews went smoothly. I decided to be a little crafty and deliberately held back one final question, the answer of which I thought could serve as the ultimate test of his truthfulness. When I posed the question, an awkward stare lasted momentarily, and I sensed a “gotch-ya” moment. From then on, I knew I had the stuff in me to be a pretty good historian of espionage.

R.'s book list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad

R. Bruce Craig Why R. loves this book

I doubt there has ever been a more controversial book written about an espionage case than Perjury! For decades, Professor Weinstein’s 1978 book on the Alger Hiss case generated heated arguments between Hiss’s supporters and detractors. I was a participant in that battle and I tell you, it was brutal. Both sides took no prisoners when arguing over the legitimacy of the author’s interpretation of evidence and conclusions. For over 25 years, Hiss cheered his supporters on and went to his grave, still proclaiming his innocence. 

The historian’s task is to separate historical fact from fantasy. I recommend Weinstein’s expanded second edition version because in its pages, he does just that, plus he integrated the provocative evidence from Russian archives that emerged after the first edition was published. 

Bottom line, this book provides the most objective and convincing account of the drama that led to Hiss’s conviction.  

By Allen Weinstein ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Perjury as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Although almost a half-century has passed since the jury at Alger Hiss's second trial pronounced him guilty of perjury, the case remains controversial and the verdict leaves questions unanswered. The case has continued to make headlines and attract considerable media attention in the years since Perjury was first published in 1978, and this new edition of the book incorporates evidence available only in the past two decades, bringing the essential public story of the episode up to the present. The author has sought and gained access to many previously undiscovered, unavailable, or ignored sources of documentary and oral evidence, both…


Book cover of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

R. Bruce Craig Author Of Treasonable Doubt

From my list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad.

Why am I passionate about this?

I probably owe my passion for espionage history to none other than a singular encounter with the infamous Alger Hiss! When writing my doctoral dissertation, I had the opportunity to interview him. I spent weeks preparing questions, and for the most part, the interviews went smoothly. I decided to be a little crafty and deliberately held back one final question, the answer of which I thought could serve as the ultimate test of his truthfulness. When I posed the question, an awkward stare lasted momentarily, and I sensed a “gotch-ya” moment. From then on, I knew I had the stuff in me to be a pretty good historian of espionage.

R.'s book list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad

R. Bruce Craig Why R. loves this book

I treasure this book not only because I possess one of the few hardback copies inscribed by all three authors but also because I consider Spies the most authoritative book about KGB espionage operations in America during the 1930s and 40s. Without question, if I could own own only one book about Soviet espionage in America, this would be it!.  

I’ve known the principal author, John Haynes, for over thirty years. Though we do not always agree on who was or was not a Soviet spy, I have the utmost respect for his scholarship and encyclopedic knowledge of KGB operations. What I feel is particularly important about this book is that it integrates information from available Soviet archival sources into the narrative. Not surprisingly, the authors reveal the names of numerous Americans who were Soviet spies but were never even under suspicion. Read carefully: you may find a relative is…

By John Earl Haynes , Harvey Klehr , Alexander Vassiliev

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Spies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An unprecedented expose of Soviet espionage in the United States during the 1930s and 40s

This stunning book, based on KGB archives that have never come to light before, provides the most complete account of Soviet espionage in America ever written. In 1993, former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev was permitted unique access to Stalin-era records of Soviet intelligence operations against the United States. Years later, living in Britain, Vassiliev retrieved his extensive notebooks of transcribed documents from Moscow. With these notebooks John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have meticulously constructed a new, sometimes shocking, historical account.

Along with general insights…


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Book cover of Doctors at War: The Clandestine Battle against the Nazi Occupation of France

Doctors at War by Ellen Hampton,

Doctors at War: The Clandestine Battle against the Nazi Occupation of France takes readers into the moral labyrinth of the Occupation years, 1940-45, to examine how the medical community dealt with the evil authority imposed on them. Anti-Jewish laws prevented many doctors from practicing, inspiring many to form secret medical…

Book cover of Whittaker Chambers: A Biography

Harvey Klehr Author Of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

From my list on Soviet espionage.

Why am I passionate about this?

For more than fifty years I have been fascinated by the relationship between the Communist Party of the United States and the Soviet Union. When Russian archives were opened to Western scholars after the collapse of the USSR, I was the first American to work in a previously closed archive where I discovered evidence that American communists had spied for the Soviets. Our understanding of twentieth-century history has been transformed by the revelations about the extent to which Soviet spies had infiltrated American institutions. Excavating long-buried secrets is a historian's dream!

Harvey's book list on Soviet espionage

Harvey Klehr Why Harvey loves this book

The Alger Hiss case riveted America in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His trial and conviction convince many Americans that Communist espionage had been a serious problem and the case made Richard Nixon a national figure. His chief accuser, Whittaker Chambers, was a fascinating, tormented, talented man and writer. Tanenhaus’s biography portrays him with all his virtues, warts, and contradictions.

By Sam Tanenhaus ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Whittaker Chambers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

[Audiobook CD Library Edition in vinyl case.]

[Read by Edward Lewis]

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist

Whittaker Chambers is the first biography of this complex and enigmatic figure. Drawing on dozens of interviews and on materials from forty archives in the United States and abroad -- including still-classified KGB dossiers -- Tanenhaus traces the remarkable journey that led Chambers from a sleepy Long Island village to center stage in America's greatest political trial and then, in his last years, to a unique role as the godfather of post-war conservatism.

This…


Book cover of Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley

Harvey Klehr Author Of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

From my list on Soviet espionage.

Why am I passionate about this?

For more than fifty years I have been fascinated by the relationship between the Communist Party of the United States and the Soviet Union. When Russian archives were opened to Western scholars after the collapse of the USSR, I was the first American to work in a previously closed archive where I discovered evidence that American communists had spied for the Soviets. Our understanding of twentieth-century history has been transformed by the revelations about the extent to which Soviet spies had infiltrated American institutions. Excavating long-buried secrets is a historian's dream!

Harvey's book list on Soviet espionage

Harvey Klehr Why Harvey loves this book

In addition to facilitating atomic espionage, Julius Rosenberg supervised several engineers who stole vital technical secrets dealing with radar, sonar, and aviation.  Usdin tells the fascinating story of two of them, Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, who defected to the Soviet Union after the Rosenbergs were arrested and helped build the Soviet Silicon Valley.

By Steven T. Usdin ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Engineering Communism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Engineering Communism is the fascinating story of Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, dedicated Communists and members of the Rosenberg spy ring, who stole information from the United States during World War II that proved crucial to building the first advanced weapons systems in the USSR. On the brink of arrest, they escaped with KGB's help and eluded American intelligence for decades.

Drawing on extensive interviews with Barr and new archival evidence, Steve Usdin explains why Barr and Sarant became spies, how they obtained military secrets, and how FBI blunders led to their escape. He chronicles their pioneering role in the…


Book cover of Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy

Harvey Klehr Author Of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

From my list on Soviet espionage.

Why am I passionate about this?

For more than fifty years I have been fascinated by the relationship between the Communist Party of the United States and the Soviet Union. When Russian archives were opened to Western scholars after the collapse of the USSR, I was the first American to work in a previously closed archive where I discovered evidence that American communists had spied for the Soviets. Our understanding of twentieth-century history has been transformed by the revelations about the extent to which Soviet spies had infiltrated American institutions. Excavating long-buried secrets is a historian's dream!

Harvey's book list on Soviet espionage

Harvey Klehr Why Harvey loves this book

The story of the youngest physicist at Los Alamos, Ted Hall, who volunteered to spy for the KGB and provided vital atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Although Hall’s treachery was discovered by American counter-intelligence, he was never prosecuted to avoid alerting the Soviets that the United States had decrypted their top-secret WWII cables. Albright and Kunstel tell the story of an idealistic, naïve and arrogant spy.

By Joseph Albright , Marcia Kunstel ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bombshell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ted Hall was a physics prodigy so gifted that he was asked to join the Manhattan Project when he was only eighteen years old.  There, in wartime Los Alamos, working under Robert Oppenheimer and Bruno Rossi, Hall helped build the atomic bomb.  To his friends and coworkers he was a brilliant young rebel with a boundless future in atomic science.  To his Soviet spymasters, he was something else: "Mlad," their mole within Los Alamos, a most hidden and valuable asset and the men who first slipped them the secrets to the making of the atomic bomb.

In a book that…


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Book cover of Benghazi! A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink

Benghazi! A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink by Ethan Chorin,

Benghazi: A New History is a look back at the enigmatic 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, its long-tail causes, and devastating (and largely unexamined) consequences for US domestic politics and foreign policy. It contains information not found elsewhere, and is backed up by 40 pages of…

Book cover of The Cambridge Spies

R. Bruce Craig Author Of Treasonable Doubt

From my list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad.

Why am I passionate about this?

I probably owe my passion for espionage history to none other than a singular encounter with the infamous Alger Hiss! When writing my doctoral dissertation, I had the opportunity to interview him. I spent weeks preparing questions, and for the most part, the interviews went smoothly. I decided to be a little crafty and deliberately held back one final question, the answer of which I thought could serve as the ultimate test of his truthfulness. When I posed the question, an awkward stare lasted momentarily, and I sensed a “gotch-ya” moment. From then on, I knew I had the stuff in me to be a pretty good historian of espionage.

R.'s book list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad

R. Bruce Craig Why R. loves this book

British spy rings of the 1930s and 40s fascinate me. Their members appear more colorful and audacious than their American counterparts. I think it rings especially true for the chaps of the “Cambridge Spy Ring.” Their escapades are recounted in dozens of books but I consider Newton’s the best, partly because he does what no other historian had done: chronicle the missing American dimension of the Cambridge Spy Ring saga. 

Newton is a fine historian as well as a grand storyteller, and I love a book that reads like a mystery novel! I also have great respect for writers who possess the knack for projecting a sense of “place” in their books. Newton does this so well that, when I lived in Washington DC, and after completing my evening read of his book, I’d venture out onto gaslit cobblestone streets and wander by the l brick-faced Georgian style residences ever…

By Verne W. Newton ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Cambridge Spies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three British diplomats and spies, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and Guy Burgess, did everything in their power to see to it that the Soviet Union prevailed in post-WWII clashes with the United States.


Book cover of Anthony Blunt

R. Bruce Craig Author Of Treasonable Doubt

From my list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad.

Why am I passionate about this?

I probably owe my passion for espionage history to none other than a singular encounter with the infamous Alger Hiss! When writing my doctoral dissertation, I had the opportunity to interview him. I spent weeks preparing questions, and for the most part, the interviews went smoothly. I decided to be a little crafty and deliberately held back one final question, the answer of which I thought could serve as the ultimate test of his truthfulness. When I posed the question, an awkward stare lasted momentarily, and I sensed a “gotch-ya” moment. From then on, I knew I had the stuff in me to be a pretty good historian of espionage.

R.'s book list on Cold-War Soviet espionage in America and abroad

R. Bruce Craig Why R. loves this book

Of all the biographies I’ve ever read, Miranda Carter’s psychological tale chronicling “the lives” of Anthony Blunt is my all-time favorite! When I taught my university espionage history course, my students typically knew nothing about espionage history. I made Carter’s book their first reading assignment as I needed to kick the course off with a quick-paced, enthralling story of a real-life spy. Carter’s book was perfect.

Carter characterizes this treacherous Communist as a “spy with no shame.” So true! In his public life, Blunt wore a mask that allowed him to appear as a renowned art historian who hobnobbed with the Queen. But another mask is evident—that of a conniving spy recruiter who, as a closeted homosexual, seduced and blackmailed undergrad boys into becoming Communists and, in some cases, spies.

In my experience, no other book does a better job of showing readers what it is like to live a…

By Miranda Carter ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Anthony Blunt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Anthony Blunt died in 1983, he was a man about whom almost anything could be - and was - said. As Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures and Director of the Courtauld Institute, Blunt's position was assured until his exposure in 1979 left his reputation in tatters. Miranda Carter's brilliantly insightful biography gives us a vivid portrait of a human paradox. Blunt's totally discrete lives, with their permanent contradictions, serve to remind us that there is no one key to any human being's identity: we are all a series of conflicting selves.


Book cover of The Book of Daniel

Andrew Altschul Author Of The Gringa

From my list on to make you rethink America.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in a comfortable suburb, I was never encouraged to examine my privilege or to ask questions about our country’s social and economic arrangements. I knew shockingly little about U.S. history beyond the triumphalist narratives of great men and military victories; the dark side of that history usually came in footnotes, and always with the implication that our country’s sins are mere aberrations from its good intentions. I had to learn the most important truths about our history from literature, which shows us the impact that events have on individuals, painting a fuller picture of how America became the country it is, and the terrible price so many people have had to pay.

Andrew's book list on to make you rethink America

Andrew Altschul Why Andrew loves this book

In 1953, a working-class Jewish couple from Brooklyn was executed for allegedly selling nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. Their two young children were orphaned. E. L. Doctorow’s novel about the Rosenbergs is an excruciating examination of these events from the fictionalized perspective of one of those children. Daniel’s point of view—naïve, angry, traumatizedbrilliantly illustrates the absurdity and cruelty of American culture when it turns against those who, for reasons of class, race, or religion, have never been fully included in it. I’ve read it a dozen times and still find myself sobbing at the realization of how all the country’s history, all its dreams and delusions about itself and its destiny, were stacked up against this poor pair of nobodies. Their real crime lay in demanding that the United States live up to its ideals, something it has never been able to do.

By E.L. Doctorow ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Book of Daniel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Based on the trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted of delivering information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union E.L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel includes a new introduction by Jonathan Freedland in Penguin Modern Classics.

As Cold War hysteria inflames America, FBI agents pay a surprise visit to a Communist man and his wife in their New York apartment. After a trial that divides the country, the couple are sent to the electric chair for treason. Decades later, in 1967, their son Daniel struggles to understand the tragedy of their lives. But while he is…


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Book cover of The Intermediaries

The Intermediaries by Brandy Schillace,

The fascinating history of a daring team of sexologists who built the first trans clinic in the shadow of the Third Reich.

Set in interwar Germany, The Intermediaries tells the forgotten story of the Institute for Sexual Science, the world’s first center for homosexual and transgender rights. Headed by a…

Book cover of Invitation to an Inquest: A New Look at the Rosenberg-Sobell Case

Barron H. Lerner Author Of The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics

From my list on the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case.

Why am I passionate about this?

The executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg seem so distant that it is jarring for me to contemplate that I was born in 1960, only seven years after their deaths. Growing up Jewish, I often heard the Rosenberg case invoked as an example of anti-Semitism. But it was not until I was an undergraduate history major that I read the scholarly literature about the Rosenbergs and subscribed to the newsletter of the Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case. My ongoing interest in the case helps me remind students about two crucial points: ongoing historical scholarship gets us closer to the “truth” but we may never know what “actually” happened. Which is OK.

Barron's book list on the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case

Barron H. Lerner Why Barron loves this book

The Schneirs did not write the first book on the famous case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, New Yorkers who were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951 and put to death by the U.S. government in 1953. But for 20 years after its publication in 1965, their book became the definitive version of how the Rosenbergs had been victims of a grave miscarriage of justice, convicted of a crime “that never occurred”.

When the Schneirs published a revised version in 1983, its claims directly conflicted with those of another 1983 book, The Rosenberg File by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, which argued that during World War II, Julius Rosenberg had absolutely been a spy who shared atomic secrets with the Soviet Union. These divergent views led to a very public debate over the Rosenbergs’ guilt.

By Walter Schneir , Miriam Schneir ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Invitation to an Inquest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Currents Affairs, Politics, Espiaonage


Book cover of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
Book cover of Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case
Book cover of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

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