Dreyfus Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century

by Harris, Ruth

• ISBN13: 9780312572983
• ISBN10: 0312572980
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-21
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

The definitive history of the infamous scandal that shook a nation and stunned the worldIn 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was wrongfully convicted of being a spy for Germany and imprisoned on Devil's Island. Over the following years, attempts to correct this injustice tore France apart, inflicting wounds on the society which have never fully healed.But how did a fairly obscure miscarriage of justice come to break up families in bitterness, set off anti-Semitic riots across the French empire, and nearly trigger a coup d'etat? How did a violently reactionary, obscurantist attitude become so powerful in a country that saw itself as the home of enlightenment? Why did the battle over a junior army officer occupy the foremost writers and philosophers of the age, from Emile Zola to Marcel Proust, Emile Durkheim, and many others? What drove the anti-Dreyfusards to persist in their efforts even after it became clear that much of the prosecution's evidence was faked?Drawing upon thousands of previously unread and unconsidered sources, prizewinning historian Ruth Harris goes beyond the conventional narrative of truth loving democrats uniting against proto-fascists. Instead, she offers the first in-depth history of both sides in the Affair, showing how complex interlocking influences--tensions within the military, the clashing demands of justice and nationalism, and a tangled web of friendships and family connections--shaped both the coalition working to free Dreyfus and the formidable alliances seeking to protect the reputation of the army that had convicted him. Sweeping and engaging,Dreyfusoffers a new understanding of one of the most contested and significant moments in modern history.

Author Biography

Ruth Harris is the author of Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age. A fellow and tutor at Oxford University, she has written widely on topics in French history, cultural history, women’s history, and the history of medicine. She lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xvii
Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
Preface	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
Trial and Errors
Degradation	p. 15
Family and Friends	p. 42
France, Germany and the Jewish Community	p. 59
The Alsatian Connection	p. 73
Zola	p. 105
Intellectuals and Anti-intellectuals
The Polemic Begins	p. 135
Dreyfusard Contradictions	p. 154
'Anti-intellectuals': Catholics and the Occult	p. 169
Dreyfusards and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition	p. 187
Mother-love and Nationalism: Maurice Barrès and Jules Soury	p. 201
Movements and Mystiques
Anti-Dreyfusard Movements and Martyrology	p. 217
The Dreyfusard Mystique	p. 247
Salonnières Left and Right	p. 273
Rightist Illusions	p. 296
The End of the Affair
Alfred Returns	p. 309
The Trial and Its Aftermath	p. 322
Aftershocks	p. 340
The Politics of Rehabilitation	p. 362
Epilogue	p. 371
Notes	p. 387
Chronology	p. 469
Dramatis Personae	p. 477
Bibliography	p. 487
Index	p. 525
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