Bernard-Lazare
Subtitle: antisemitism and the problem of Jewish identity in late nineteenth-century France
By: Nelly Wilson
Contributors: Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1978
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
Subjects: Antisemitism; Jews; Biography; Journalists
Description: Bernard-Lazare (1865-1903) was a French Jewish writer who was the prime mover in the Dreyfus Affair. The Dreyfus Affair lies at the centre of this 1978 book as it was the turning point in Bernard-Lazare's life. In the first part of the book Dr Wilson traces his early career: his defence of the Symbolist aesthetic as a philosophy of freedom; his sympathy for oppressed individuality and minority groups, and his passion for social justice; above all his analysis of antisemitism where, initially, he argued for social assimilation only to reject such an idea later in favour of a concept of cultural pluralism. The second part offers a history of the Dreyfus Affair and the way Bernard-Lazare drew attention to its grave irregularities. Finally, the book explores how he came to espouse Jewish nationalism in a much more radical way than did Herzl, the founder of Zionism.
Notes: Includes index.

Bibliography: p. [326]-339.