The National and International Responses to the Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Abstract

“The National and International Responses to the Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,” by Mallory Hogan, analyzes a controversial episode in American history from a global perspective, discussing the reactions of the public and the press to the polemical trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The author considers responses to the trial within the United States and then the international backlash against the couple’s conviction to death, drawing on accusations of American fascism, anti-Semitism, and “war hysteria.” The paper’s mastery of its source material—contemporary journalism from around the world, as well as the revelatory Venona documents—help to make it an important reevaluation of an event that had repercussions far beyond the United States of the Cold War. – Arthur Dixon