1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456876703321

Autore

Begley Louis

Titolo

Why the Dreyfus Affair matters [[electronic resource] /] / Louis Begley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2009

ISBN

1-282-35349-7

9786612353499

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (208 p.)

Collana

Why X matters

Disciplina

944.081/2

Soggetti

Trials (Treason) - Political aspects - France

Antisemitism - France - History - 19th century

Electronic books.

France History Third Republic, 1870-1940

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- One. "If they haven't been ordered to convict him, he will be acquitted this evening" -- Two. "The past is never dead" -- Three. "What do you care if that Jew stays on Devil's Island?" -- Four. "The truth marches on and nothing will stop it" -- Five. "Dreyfus was rehabilitated, Picquart became minister of war, and nobody said boo" -- Cast of Characters -- Chronology -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.Was the Dreyfus Affair merely another



instance of the rise in France of a virulent form of anti-Semitism? In Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters, the acclaimed novelist draws upon his legal expertise to create a riveting account of the famously complex case, and to remind us of the interest each one of us has in the faithful execution of laws as the safeguard of our liberties and honor.