The Public Burning
Quick Summary
The Public Burning is a 1977 novel by Robert Coover that offers a "factional account" of the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The novel is written from the perspective of Richard Nixon and satirizes the national mood of the early 1950s. The Rosenbergs were the first American civilians executed for espionage during peacetime, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. military secrets to the Soviet Union. Coover's work is part of a broader literary exploration of the Rosenberg case, which continued to spark debate about their guilt for years after their execution.12
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