Why the Dreyfus Affair matters
By: Louis Begley.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 249
ISBN-13: 9780300125320
Subjects: Dreyfus, Alfred, -- 1859-1935; Dreyfus, Alfred, -- 1859-1935 -- Influence; Trials (Treason) -- Political aspects -- France; Antisemitism -- France -- History -- 19th century; France -- History -- Third Republic, 1870-1940
Description: In December 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a brilliant French artillery officer and a Jew of Alsatian descent, was court-martialed for selling secrets to the German military attaché in Paris based on perjured testimony and trumped-up evidence. The sentence was military degradation and life imprisonment on Devil's Island, a hellhole off the coast of French Guiana. Five years later, the case was overturned, and eventually Dreyfus was completely exonerated. Meanwhile, the Dreyfus Affair tore France apart, pitting Dreyfusards - committed to restoring freedom and honor to an innocent man convicted of a crime committed by another - against nationalists, anti-Semites, and militarists who preferred having an innocent man rot to exposing the crimes committed by ministers of war and the army's top brass in order to secure Dreyfus's conviction.--[source unknown].
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.