Lori Clune

If you're considering this book I would suggest you notice one thing in particular about the title, Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in a Cold War World, namely that it is about executing the Rosenbergs and not convicting them. While Clune certainly points out facts that were either ignored, overlooked or unknown at trial that is not the focus of this book. It is about the harsh sentence, the national and international responses and the ways (and reasons) in which the US government dug in its heels and carried out the sentence. In other words, those who are making obvious in their "reviews" that they either didn't read the book or were unable to understand its nuances because they feel an inflated sense of indignation that the past is being analyzed and the US government, like any human organization, is less than perfect and sometimes acts in an inconsistent manner can and should be ignored as extremists putting forth outdated talking points.

This book is not perfect and I found a couple of her arguments less persuasive than others but on the whole the book is very well researched, clearly argued (if one opens one's mind a bit) presents a viable framework within which to better understand both why the government chose, outside of the trial itself, to impose an extreme and unpopular sentence. The changes in tone and characterization in government communications shows the shifting world within which this trial and the fiasco around the executions took place.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in the period of the cold war as well as anyone interested in how diplomacy, or the lack thereof, are every bit as important as any discovery of facts or guilt/innocence in a trial of this magnitude.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)