Federal Courts: Espionage and the Rosenbergs

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since its passage after World War I, thousands of people have been investigated for violating the Espionage Act, including Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, and Donald Trump. However, only two people have been executed for violating it during peacetime; Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. This episode features Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy, and Jake Kobrick, Associate Historian at the Federal Judicial Center. It explains the Espionage Act of 1917, the accusations against the Rosenbergs, the twists and turns of their trial, and their execution in 1953. Like our work? Click this link to support it with a donation today. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the greatest peacetime spy dramas in the nation's history reaches its climax.
0:12.0	As Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobel convicted of revealing atomic secrets to the Russians
0:17.4	enter the federal building in New York to hear their doom.
0:21.2	I'm Nick Capady-J.
0:23.2	I'm Hannah McCarthy.
0:24.2	And you're listening to Civics 101.
0:26.6	We are continuing our series on federal court trials, the landmark non-supreme court cases
0:32.3	that were followed by the public and the press.
0:35.2	These are the places where the people in the courts meet.
0:37.7	And today we are exploring the 1951 trial of the first ever US citizens to be executed
0:43.8	for espionage during peacetime.
0:46.1	Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
0:48.4	And Hannah, this trial has a lot in it.
0:52.4	It's tied to communism.
0:53.4	And coming as party of the United States is a fifth column if there ever was one.
0:57.7	McCarthyism?
0:58.7	Everyone knows the stance of decency.
1:01.9	The Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
1:05.8	So this is an espionage case, right?
1:07.8	Yeah.
1:08.8	So I think it would be best before we get to know who Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were
1:13.6	and what they did to understand what espionage actually is.
	...

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