Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy

Ethel Rosenberg’s story is America’s Dreyfus Affair: a catastrophic failure of humanity and justice that continues to haunt the national conscience.

Anne Sebba speaks to Suzannah Lipscomb about her revelatory new biography of the woman caught up in one of the Cold War’s great controversies. Executed for a crime she almost certainly didn’t commit, her tragic story reveals what happens when a government motivated by fear tramples on the rights of its citizens.

Livestreamed from The London Library Reading Room.

In partnership with JW3, the Jewish Arts and Community Centre for London

Anne Sebba is one of Britain’s most distinguished biographers. Formerly a Reuters correspondent based in London and Rome, she has written ten works of non-fiction, mostly about iconic women, and presented BBC radio documentaries. She is the author of the international bestsellers That Woman, an acclaimed biography of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died Under Nazi Occupation. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research.

Suzannah Lipscomb is an award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster. Her books include 1536: The Year that Changed Henry VIII, the Ladybird Expert book Witchcraft and The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc.

JW3 is the only Jewish Community Centre of its kind in the UK; a vibrant, cross-communal hub for Jewish arts, culture, family programming, social action, learning and much more, where everyone is welcome.

Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy can be ordered be ordered from our wonderful partner bookshop Hatchards.

N.B. This is an online event which will be livestreamed from The London Library. You will be sent a viewing link with your booking and you can watch the event at anytime using the same link. If you do not receive the link, please check your junk mail or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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