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| why was the dreyfus affair important: Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters Louis Begley, 2009-01-01 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 attache 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. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Affair and the Crisis of French Manhood Christopher E. Forth, 2004-02-06 Finally, he examines the relation of the Dreyfus Affair to the culture of forcethat marked French society during the prewar years, thus accounting for the rise of the youthful athlete as a more compelling manly ideal than the bookish and sedentary intellectual. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History Michael Burns, 2019-08-09 The unjust conviction of French Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus on charges of treason started the Dreyfus affair, a major event in European anti-Semitism. “This documentary history is designed to introduce the broad outlines and significant legacies of the Dreyfus affair, from the captain’s arrest in 1894 to the 1998 centennial of J’Accuse, Émile Zola’s scathing indictment of the French military... This volume, fashioned for a weeklong assignment in a college course, reproduces the affair’s most celebrated texts, as well as less familiar, but no less telling, documents. Presented as a chronological narrative, it charts Captain Dreyfus’s case as it unfolded in time, and summarizes the major issues and debates that have survived for the past century.” (From the preface by Michael Burns) “A fresh and compelling study of the turn of the century affair in a concise and readable book... A fine compilation of well-chosen documents and lucid analysis... Beyond making this frequently told tale come to life once again (I literally could not put the book down), Burns has given it historical and cultural context.” — Donna F. Ryan, Gallaudet University “Michael Burns’s volume is imaginatively written, with a keen eye to the drama and desperation of the Dreyfus affair. Its special strength is its learned attention to the political, military, and cultural contexts. Weaving the author’s own commentary together with documents from the period, this volume is a splendid guide to one of the most important historical landmarks of our time.” — Michael R. Marrus, University of Toronto “In both his analysis and his choice of documents, Michael Burns has brilliantly captured all the complexity and the passion of the Dreyfus affair. I salute his achievement.” — Benjamin F. Martin, Louisiana State University |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Attack on the Mill and Other Stories Émile Zola, 1999 Contains English translations of sixteen short fiction stories by nineteenth-century French author Emile Zola. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Affair Piers Paul Read, 2012-03-13 Documents the case of a successful Jewish captain in the French artillery command who was wrongly convicted of high treason, chronicling the twelve-year effort to secure his freedom and describing period anti-Semitism. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Affair Leslie Derfler, 2002-04-30 On October 15, 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain attached to the French General Staff, was arrested on charges of having betrayed his country by selling military secrets to the Germans. He was convicted of treason by military court-martial and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island, but over the next 12 years a small group of human rights supporters was able to clear him and identify the real traitor, and Dreyfus was pardoned. The most sensational case in French history, it pitted national security interests against individual rights, exposed the anti-Semitism that permeated France, and influenced the course of Europe as it rumbled toward the first of two world wars. This work provides the first comprehensive examination of this incident for students, including a narrative historical overview, essays on major aspects of the event, lengthy biographical profiles of the key players, the text of important primary documents contemporary to the time, a timeline of the event and list of French Presidents and Ministers of War during the Affair, a glossary of terms, and a bibliography of print and electronic sources and films suitable for students. This is an ideal resource for student use. Leslie Derfler, the foremost American authority on the Dreyfus Affair, puts the Affair in historical and social context for the reader. In addition to an historical overview, other essays examine the French political context before Dreyfus, the issue of anti-Semitism in the Affair, the Socialists' position, and how historical perceptions of the Dreyfus Affair have shifted over the last hundred years. Lengthy biographies of key players enrich the reader's understanding of the role of the protagonists and antagonists in the Affair. A wide range of primary source documents, from Alfred Dreyfus's diary descriptions of the torment he suffered on Devil's Island to Emile Zola's famous J'accuse! letter accusing the Army high command and the French government of conspiring to hide the truth and protect the guilty party, bring to life the emotional content of the Affair. A selection of rare photographs and newspaper illustrations and cartoons provides a valuable visual component. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Affair Piers Paul Read, 2013 Intelligent, ambitious and a rising star in the French artillery, Captain Alfred Dreyfus appeared to have everything: family, money, and the prospect of a post on the General Staff. But his rapid rise had also made him enemies - many of them aristocratic officers in the army's High Command who resented him because he was middle-class, meritocratic and a Jew.In October 1894, the torn fragments of an unsigned memo containing military secrets were retrieved by a cleaning lady from the waste paper basket of Colonel Maximilien von Schwartzkoppen of the German embassy in Paris. When French intelligence discovered they harboured a spy in their midst, Captain Dreyfus, on slender evidence, was charged with selling military secrets to the Germans, found guilty of treason by unanimous verdict and sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Devil's Island.The fight to free the wrongfully convicted Dreyfus - over twelve long years, through many trials - is a story rife with heroes and villains, courage and cowardice, dissimulation and deceit. One of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in history, the Dreyfus affair divided France, stunned the world and unleashed violent hatreds and anti-Semitic passions which offered a foretaste of what was to play out in the long, bloody twentieth century to come. Today, amid charged debates over national and religious identity across the globe, its lessons throw into sharp relief the conflicts of the present. In the hands of historian, biographer and prize-winning novelist Piers Paul Read, this masterful epic of the struggle between a minority seeking justice and a military establishment determined to save face comes dramatically alive for a new generation. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Case Émile Zola, 1898 |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: I accuse ! Émile Zola, 2023-05-12 In 1898, the French naturalist leader Émile Zola made a public speech on the front page of a leading daily newspaper to express his insult at the conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Alfred Dreyfus was a Jew falsely accused of treason. Far from being topical, the affair filled French politics, the army and the judiciary. Even today, in the face of society's entrenched anti-Semitism, the article remains a hot topic. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Affair Jean-Denis Bredin, 1986 On an Autumn Morning in 1894, Captain Dreyfus was summoned to appear for a routine inspection; instead, as he took down a letter dictated by a senior officer, he was summarily accused of high treason. So began a twelve-year series of events that included his imprisonment on Devil's Island, the publication of Emile Zola's passionate J'Accuse, the Rennes retrial, and the pardon and final rehabilitation of 1906. As the Dreyfus case turned into the Affair, the history of a single military career came to display the conflicts that were tearing a country apart: military defeat, anti-Semitic furor, and the place of traditional values in a country still reeling from the turbulence of the French Revolution. Told with an historian's insight and a novelist's skill, The Affair makes fascinating and informative reading about one of the most celebrated episodes in modern history. Book jacket. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The House of Fragile Things James McAuley, 2021-03-01 A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews--pillars of an embattled community--invested their fortunes in France's cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country's army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt--the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers--McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of invading France's cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind--many ultimately donated to the French state--were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: French Cultural Politics & Music Jane F. Fulcher, 1999 This book argues that French musical meanings and values in the years from 1898 to 1914 are best explained not in terms of contemporary artistic movements, but rather in terms of the political culture, which was undergoing subtle but profound transformation as nationalist leagues enlarged the arena of political action. Applying recent insights from French history, sociology, political anthropology, and literary theory, the book reveals how nationalists used critics, educational institutions, concert series and lectures to disseminate their values through a discourse on French music; and it demonstrates how the Republic and Left responded to this challenge through their own discourses on French musical values. Against this background Fulcher traces the impact of this politicized musical culture on composers such as d'Indy, Charpentier, Magnard, Debussy, and Satie. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Dreyfus Ruth Harris, 2010-06-22 The definitive history of the infamous scandal that shook a nation and stunned the world In 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'état? 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 Émile Zola to Marcel Proust, Émile 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, Dreyfus offers a new understanding of one of the most contested and significant moments in modern history. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: For the Soul of France Frederick Brown, 2011-02-08 In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, a defeated and humiliated France split into cultural factions that ranged from those who embraced modernity to those who championed the restoration of throne and altar. This polarization—to which such iconic monuments as the Sacre-Coeur and the Eiffel Tower bear witness—intensified with a succession of grave events over the following decades: the crash of an investment bank founded to advance Catholic interests; the failure of the Panama Canal Company; the fraudulent charge of treason brought against a Jewish officer, Alfred Dreyfus, which resulted in a civil war between his zealous supporters and fanatical antagonists. In this brilliant reconsideration of what fostered the rise of fascism and anti-Semitism in twentieth-century Europe, Frederick Brown chronicles the intense struggle for the soul of a nation, and shows how France’s deep fractures led to its surrender to Hitler’s armies in 1940. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Affair Jacques Kayser, Nora Bickley, 2013-10 This is a new release of the original 1931 edition. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Jew Accused Albert S. Lindemann, 1991 Three Jews, Alfred Dreyfus, Mendel Beilis, and Leo Frank, were charged with heinous crimes in the generation before World War I, Dreyfus of treason in France, Beilis of ritual murder in Russia, and Frank of the murder of a young girl in the United States. Quite aside from the lurid details and sensational charges, larger issues emerged, among them the power of modern anti-Semitism, the sometimes tragic conflict between the freedom of the press and the protection of individual rights, the unpredictable reactions of individuals when subjected to extreme situations, and the inevitable ambiguities of campaigns for truth and justice when political advantage is to be gained from them. In attempting to untangle myth and reality many surprises emerge; heroes appear less heroic and villains less villainous, while real factors appear more important than most accounts of the affairs have recognised. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Embrace of Unreason Frederick Brown, 2015-01-06 Spanning the turbulent decades between the World Wars, The Embrace of Unreason casts new light on the darkest years in modern French history. It is a fascinating reconsideration of the political, social, and religious movements that led to France’s move away from the humanistic traditions and rationalistic ideals of the Enlightenment and towards submission to authority—and the dramatic rise of Fascism and anti-Semitism. Drawing on newspaper articles, journals, and literary works of the time, acclaimed biographer and cultural historian Frederick Brown explores the forces unleashed by the Dreyfus Affair and how clashing ideologies and new artistic movements led France to an era of violence and nationalistic fervor. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Uneasy Asylum Vicki Caron, 1999 This book, which draws on a rich array of primary sources and archival materials, offers the first major appraisal of French responses to the Jewish refugee crisis after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. It explores French policies and attitudes toward Jewish refugees from three interrelated vantage points: government policy, public opinion, and the role of the French Jewish community. The author demonstrates that Jewish refugees in France were not treated in the same manner as other foreigners, in part because of foreign policy considerations and in part because Jewish refugees had a distinctive socioeconomic profile. By examining the socioeconomic and political factors that informed French refugee policy in the 1930's, the author presents overwhelming evidence that Vichy's anti-Jewish measures were not merely the work of a few antisemitic zealots in the administration, nor did they stem solely from the desire of Marshal Pétain's government to find scapegoats for the military defeat of 1940. Rather, they enjoyed widespread popular support, not only from far-right organizations but also from a host of middle-class professional associations and their members (doctors, lawyers, merchants, and artisans) who perceived Jews as a competitive threat. The author also sheds new light on Jewish political behavior in the 1930s. She demonstrates that the French Jewish community was sharply divided over the proper approach to the refugee crisis. While some Jewish leaders pressed for a hard-line policy, others worked assiduously to provide the refugees relief and to persuade the government to pursue a more liberal refugee policy. Thus the author refutes claims that the native French Jewish elite was overwhelmingly unsympathetic to the refugees because of fear that an influx of refugees would provoke an antisemitic backlash. While this book reveals the extent to which anti-refugee attitudes and policies in the 1930's paved the way for Vichy's anti-Jewish policies, it also highlights significant discontinuities between the refugee policies of the Third Republic and those of the Vichy regime. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Jewish Emancipation Reconsidered Michael Brenner, Vicki Caron, Uri R. Kaufmann, 2003 European and American scholars of history, Jewish studies, and various social sciences examine the history of French and German Jews from the late-18th to the early-20th centuries, a period commonly referred to as the emancipation era. The two communities are often seen as paradigms respectively of the different paths to emancipation: from revolution and from evolution. The 12 essays are from a May 2001 conference in Tutzing, Germany. Distributed by Coronet Books. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com). |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Dreyfus Affair G. Whyte, 2005-10-12 Volume one of a comprehensive series on the Dreyfus Affair, this account chronicles for the first time in English and day by day, the drama that destabilized French society (1894-1906) and reverberated across the world. A deliberate miscarriage of justice, the public degradation of an innocent Jewish officer and his incarceration on Devil's Island, espionage, intrigue, media pressure, vehement antisemitism and political skulduggery - topics so relevant to our times - are set within a broad historical context. Meticulous research, new translations of key documents, a wealth of primary sources and illustrations and a select bibliography make this an indispensable reference work. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust Melvin I. Urofsky, 1995-01-01 Theodore Herzl, a Vienna journalist, realized that anti-Semitism, dramatically illustrated by the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France, would never be stemmed by the attempts of Jews to assimilate. The publication of his Der Judenstaat in 1896 began the political movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It caught on in Europe but was moribund in the United States until World War I. Melvin I. Urofsky shows how the Zionist movement was Americanized by Louis D. Brandeis and other reformers. He portrays the disputes between assimilationist and conservative Jews and the difficulties impeding the movement until Arab riots, British treachery, and the Nazi horrors of World War II reunited American Jewry. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Prague Cemetery Umberto Eco, 2011-11-08 The Prague Cemetery is the #1 international bestselling historical novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco. Nineteenth-century Europe—from Turin to Prague to Paris—abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. Conspiracies rule history. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if behind all of these conspiracies, both real and imagined, lay one lone man? “Choreographed by a truth that is itself so strange a novelist need hardly expand on it to produce a wondrous tale... Eco is to be applauded for bringing this stranger-than-fiction truth vividly to life.” —The New York Times |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Jews of France Esther Benbassa, 1999 In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther Benbassa tells the intriguing tale of the social, economic, and cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and the Dreyfus affair. Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in Judaism. As early as the fourth century, Jews inhabited Roman Gaul, and by the reign of Charlemagne, some figured prominently at court. The perception of Jewish influence on France's rulers contributed to a clash between church and monarchy that would culminate in the mass expulsion of Jews in the fourteenth century. The book examines the re-entry of small numbers of Jews as New Christians in the Southwest and the emergence of a new French Jewish population with the country's acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine. The saga of modernity comes next, beginning with the French Revolution and the granting of citizenship to French Jews. Detailed yet quick-paced discussions of key episodes follow: progress made toward social and political integration, the shifting social and demographic profiles of Jews in the 1800s, Jewish participation in the economy and the arts, the mass migrations from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, the Dreyfus affair, persecution under Vichy, the Holocaust, and the postwar arrival of North African Jews. Reinterpreting such themes as assimilation, acculturation, and pluralism, Benbassa finds that French Jews have integrated successfully without always risking loss of identity. Published to great acclaim in France, this book brings important current issues to bear on the study of Judaism in general, while making for dramatic reading. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Disappearance of Émile Zola Michael Rosen, 2017-01-03 It is the evening of 18 July 1898 and the world-renowned novelist Émile Zola is on the run. His crime? Taking on the highest powers in the land with his open letter 'J'accuse' and losing. Forced to leave Paris, with nothing but the clothes he is standing in and a nightshirt wrapped in newspaper, Zola flees to England with no idea when he will return. This is the little-known story of his time in exile. Rosen has traced Zola's footsteps from the Gare du Nord to London, examining the significance of this year. The Disappearance of Zola offers an intriguing insight into the mind, the loves, the politics and the work of the great writer. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Scout Mindset Julia Galef, 2021-04-13 ...an engaging and enlightening account from which we all can benefit.—The Wall Street Journal A better way to combat knee-jerk biases and make smarter decisions, from Julia Galef, the acclaimed expert on rational decision-making. When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a soldier mindset. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe—and shoot down those we don't. But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should train ourselves to have a scout mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true. In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world—which anyone can learn. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Alfred Dreyfus Norman Toby Simms, 2012 When people say the Dreyfus Affair split a nation or inaugurated a new era, they exaggerate and use figurative language. The Affair grew out of attitudes and opinions that were already in the process of changing by the final decade of the nineteenth century and these attitudes and opinions were part of peoples minds, ordinary everyday ways of seeing the world, and were reflected too in the more refined perceptions and feelings of the arts, the sciences, and the philosophies of the period. In this book, Simms will try to engage with many of these changes in the social and intellectual milieu, as they push and pull, influence and reshape each other; and this book finds that midrash is at once a stratagem used by Jews, consciously or not, to survive in a non-Jewish and often anti-Jewish world, as well as an analytical tool we can use to discuss the Dreyfus Affair and the people involved in it. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Why Religion? Towards a Critical Philosophy of Law, Peace and God Dawid Bunikowski, Alberto Puppo, 2020-02-11 This book examines the relation between religion and jurisprudence, God, and peace respectively. It argues that in order to elucidate the possible role religion can play in the contemporary world, it is useful to analyse religion by associating it with other concepts. Why peace? Because peace is probably the greatest promise made by religions and the greatest concern in the contemporary world. Why jurisprudence? Because, quoting Kelsen’s famous book Peace through Law, peace is usually understood as something achievable by international legal instruments. But what if we replace Peace through Law with Peace through Religion? Does law, as an instrument for achieving peace, incorporate a religious dimension? Is law, ultimately, a religious and normative construction oriented to peace, to the protection of humanity, in order to keep humans from the violence of nature? Is the hope for peace rational, or just a question of faith? Is religion itself a question of faith or a rational choice? Is the relatively recent legal concept of “responsibility to protect” a secular expression of the oldest duty of humankind? The book follows the structure of interdisciplinary research in which the international legal scholar, the moral philosopher, the philosopher of religion, the theologian, and the political scientist contribute to the construction of the necessary bridges. Moreover, it gives voice to different monotheistic traditions and, more importantly, it analyses religion in the various dimensions in which it determines the authors' cultures: as a set of rituals, as a source of moral norms, as a universal project for peace, and as a political discourse. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Gaslight Joachim Kalka, 2017-06-06 A one-of-a-kind exploration of the 19th century that ties the time period to our own through essays on a variety of topics in music, film, literature, and art. In Gaslight, Joachim Kalka delves into the mythos of the nineteenth century, exploring our fascination with its “auratic gaslight,” its mingling of romanticism and modernity, enlightenment and darkness. Here we find the roots of our contemporary preoccupations: gender roles and sexuality, terrorism and technology, mad scientists and serial killers, kitsch and commodification. Mustering a wealth of cultural references, Kalka draws illuminating connections between Balzac and Billy Wilder, Mickey Mouse and the arms race, the cake fights of Laurel and Hardy and Madame Bovary’s wedding cake. He brings the nineteenth century to life with all its contradictions, aspirations, and absurdities, inviting us to reexamine that era and our own, and the stories we tell ourselves about history. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Subversive Simone Weil Robert Zaretsky, 2021-02-23 Known as the “patron saint of all outsiders,” Simone Weil (1909–43) was one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable thinkers, a philosopher who truly lived by her political and ethical ideals. In a short life framed by the two world wars, Weil taught philosophy to lycée students and organized union workers, fought alongside anarchists during the Spanish Civil War and labored alongside workers on assembly lines, joined the Free French movement in London and died in despair because she was not sent to France to help the Resistance. Though Weil published little during her life, after her death, thanks largely to the efforts of Albert Camus, hundreds of pages of her manuscripts were published to critical and popular acclaim. While many seekers have been attracted to Weil’s religious thought, Robert Zaretsky gives us a different Weil, exploring her insights into politics and ethics, and showing us a new side of Weil that balances her contradictions—the rigorous rationalist who also had her own brand of Catholic mysticism; the revolutionary with a soft spot for anarchism yet who believed in the hierarchy of labor; and the humanitarian who emphasized human needs and obligations over human rights. Reflecting on the relationship between thought and action in Weil’s life, The Subversive Simone Weil honors the complexity of Weil’s thought and speaks to why it matters and continues to fascinate readers today. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Aspects of European History 1789-1980 Stephen J. Lee, 2008-01-28 Stephen Lee charts the most commonly encountered topics of nineteenth and twentieth century European history, from the origins of the French Revolution, through the social and political reforms of the last two centuries to the present. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Man on Devil's Island Ruth Harris, 2011 Court marshalled for a crime he didn't commit, Alfred Dreyfus was sent to Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana and condemned to solitary confinement in murderous conditions. In this book Ruth Harris addresses an event in French history that polarized society and undermined the entire French state. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Betrayal of the Duchess Maurice Samuels, 2020-04-14 Fighting to reclaim the French crown for the Bourbons, the duchesse de Berry faces betrayal at the hands of one of her closest advisors in this dramatic history of power and revolution. The year was 1832, a cholera pandemic raged, and the French royal family was in exile, driven out by yet another revolution. From a drafty Scottish castle, the duchesse de Berry -- the mother of the eleven-year-old heir to the throne -- hatched a plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty. For months, she commanded a guerilla army and evaded capture by disguising herself as a man. But soon she was betrayed by her trusted advisor, Simon Deutz, the son of France's Chief Rabbi. The betrayal became a cause célèbre for Bourbon loyalists and ignited a firestorm of hate against France's Jews. By blaming an entire people for the actions of a single man, the duchess's supporters set the terms for the century of antisemitism that followed. Brimming with intrigue and lush detail, The Betrayal of the Duchess is the riveting story of a high-spirited woman, the charming but volatile young man who double-crossed her, and the birth of one of the modern world's most deadly forms of hatred. !--EndFragment-- |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Revising Dreyfus Maya Balakirsky Katz, 2013 Revising Dreyfus explores the use of both old and new media in the historical legacy of the Dreyfus Affair. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Boundaries of the Republic Mary Dewhurst Lewis, 2007 In this first comprehensive history of immigrant inequality in France, Mary D. Lewis chronicles the conflicts arising from mass immigration between the First and Second World Wars, the uneven rights arrangements that emerged during this time, and their legacy for contemporary France. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Esau's Tears Albert S. Lindemann, 1997 Esau's Tears explores the remarkable and revealing variety of modern anti-Semitism, from its emergence in the 1870s in a racial-political form to the eve of the Nazi takeover, in the major countries of Europe and in the United States. Previous histories have generally been more concerned with description than analysis, and most of the interpretations in those histories have been lacking in balance. The evidence presented in this volume suggests that anti-Semitism in these years was more ambiguous than usually presented, less pervasive and central to the lives of both Jews and non-Jews, and by no means clearly pointed to a rising hatred of Jews everywhere, even less to the likelihood of mass murder. Similarly, Jew-hatred was not as mysterious or incomprehensible as often presented; its strength in some countries and weakness in others may be related to the fluctuating, and sometimes quite different, perceptions in those countries of the meaning of the rise of the Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Napoleon Steven Englund, 2010-05-11 This sophisticated and masterful biography, written by a respected French history scholar who has taught courses on Napoleon at the University of Paris, brings new and remarkable analysis to the study of modern history's most famous general and statesman. Since boyhood, Steven Englund has been fascinated by the unique force, personality, and political significance of Napoleon Bonaparte, who, in only a decade and a half, changed the face of Europe forever. In Napoleon: A Political Life, Englund harnesses his early passion and intellectual expertise to create a rich and full interpretation of a brilliant but flawed leader. Napoleon believed that war was a means to an end, not the end itself. With this in mind, Steven Englund focuses on the political, rather than the military or personal, aspects of Napoleon's notorious and celebrated life. Doing so permits him to arrive at some original conclusions. For example, where most biographers see this subject as a Corsican patriot who at first detested France, Englund sees a young officer deeply committed to a political event, idea, and opportunity (the French Revolution) -- not to any specific nationality. Indeed, Englund dissects carefully the political use Napoleon made, both as First Consul and as Emperor of the French, of patriotism, or nation-talk. As Englund charts Napoleon's dramatic rise and fall -- from his Corsican boyhood, his French education, his astonishing military victories and no less astonishing acts of reform as First Consul (1799-1804) to his controversial record as Emperor and, finally, to his exile and death -- he is at particular pains to explore the unprecedented power Napoleon maintained over the popular imagination. Alone among recent biographers, Englund includes a chapter that analyzes the Napoleonic legend over the course of the past two centuries, down to the present-day French Republic, which has its own profound ambivalences toward this man whom it is afraid to recognize yet cannot avoid. Napoleon: A Political Life presents new consideration of Napoleon's adolescent and adult writings, as well as a convincing argument against the recent theory that the Emperor was poisoned at St. Helena. The book also offers an explanation of Napoleon's role as father of the modern in politics. What finally emerges from these pages is a vivid and sympathetic portrait that combines youthful enthusiasm and mature scholarly reflection. The result is already regarded by experts as the Napoleonic bicentennial's first major interpretation of this perennial subject. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Madeleine Ferat Émile Zola, 1883 |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Nationalizing France's Army Christopher J. Tozzi, 2016 Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenth-century studies. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: Jules Guesde Jean-Numa Ducange, 2021-05-12 What explains France’s unique Left? Many works have reflected upon the importance of Marxism in France, yet few studies have been devoted to the man who did most to introduce Marxism into its political culture: the today near-forgotten figure of Jules Guesde. It was with Guesde that Karl Marx drafted the world’s first Marxist program, and Guesde who aroused the enthusiasm of countless worker-militants who saw him as their most important leader. Jules Guesde represents the first book-length study of the French socialist leader translated into the English language. For the radical Left today, Guesde is often considered a dogmatist who supported the Union sacrée during World War I and rejected the Bolshevik revolution; for the governmental Left, he embodies an intransigent ideologue who held back the modernization of the French Left. Throughout Jules Guesde, Jean-Numa Ducange argues that it is impossible to study the history of the French socialist movement without a close look at this singular figure and offers a fuller picture of the deep transformations of the Left and Marxism in France from the late 19th century up to the present. This scholarly biography of Jules Guesde seeks to put Guesde’s record on a properly historical footing, closely analysing both archival sources and accounts by his contemporaries. Chapter One begins with his early life and the mark left on him by the Paris Commune and exile. Chapter Two emphasises Guesde’s importance as leader of a distinct current of French socialism, recognised by figures like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Chapter Three sees Guesde become an MP for working-class Roubaix, exploring the contradictions between his revolutionary rhetoric and concrete political practice. Chapter Four turns to the years following his electoral defeat in 1898 and his renewed intransigence in the period of the Dreyfus affair and rivalry with Jaurès. Chapter Five explores his key role in the formation of a united Socialist Party. Chapter Six examines the test of World War I and Guesde’s anguish at the divisions of French socialism. The book then concludes with an examination of Guesde’s contested legacy, as both a “founding father” and figure subject to often pejorative framings. |
| why was the dreyfus affair important: The Collapse of the Third Republic William L. Shirer, 2014-10-22 The National Book Award–winning historian’s “vivid and moving” eyewitness account of the fall of France to Hitler’s Third Reich at the outset of WWII (The New York Times). As an international war correspondent and radio commentator during World War II, William L. Shirer didn’t just research the fall of France. He was there. In just six weeks, he watched the Third Reich topple one of the world’s oldest military powers—and institute a rule of terror and paranoia. Based on in-person conversations with the leaders, diplomats, generals, and ordinary citizens who both shaped the events and lived through them, Shirer constructs a compelling account of historical events without losing sight of the human experience. From the heroic efforts of the Freedom Fighters to the tactical military misjudgments that caused the fall and the daily realities of life for French citizens under Nazi rule, this fascinating and exhaustively documented account brings this significant episode of history to life. “This is a companion effort to Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, also voluminous but very readable, reflecting once again both Shirer’s own experience and an enormous mass of historical material well digested and assimilated.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) |
"Why it is" vs "Why is it" - English Language & Usage Stack …
Nov 7, 2013 · The question: "Why is [etc.]" is a question form in English: Why is the sky blue? Why is it that children require so much attention? Why is it [or some thing] like that? When that …
How did the letter Z come to be associated with sleeping/snoring?
May 26, 2011 · See also Why Does ZZZ mean sleep? for another theory: The reason zzz came into being is that the comic strip artists just couldn’t represent sleeping with much. ... As the …
What's the proper way to handwrite a lowercase letter A?
Oct 31, 2017 · But why are there two different As? Back in ye olde days there were many ways to write a lower-case A. (The same went for other letters, for example þ was later written "y", …
Why is "pineapple" in English but "ananas" in all other languages?
Nov 7, 2013 · I don't think we are discussing whether "ananas" or "pineapple" was used first, but where it came from and why the English language does not use "ananas" today. I would say …
Reason for different pronunciations of "lieutenant"
Dec 6, 2014 · As to why present day usage is as it is: People can be contrary. It's possible the US adopted "Loo" because and only because the Brits said "Lef" -- or vice-versa. But it seems the …
The whys and the hows - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Apr 13, 2017 · The rule on apostrophes on plurals applies if the word in question is a bona fide word as a plural. My dictionary shows the plural of "why" with a simple "s." Ditto other words …
terminology - Why use BCE/CE instead of BC/AD? - English …
Why do people use the latter terminology? For one thing, I find it confusing. It doesn't help that BCE is similar to BC. But moreover, there is only one letter of difference between the two …
etymology - Why "shrink" (of a psychiatrist)? - English Language ...
I'm afraid I have to disagree here. From my understanding, and a recent article in the Atlantic, derived from the new text Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern …
Using hundreds to express thousands: why, where, when?
May 30, 2017 · Why change register half way through? [¶ Of course, even in the middle ages, educated professionals such as architects, military engineers and accountants would work to …
How did the word "beaver" come to be associated with vagina?
From "Why King George of England May Have to Lose His Beard: How the Game of 'Beaver' Which All England Is Playing Is So Threatening the Proper Reverence for the Throne That …
"Why it is" vs "Why is it" - English Language & Usage Stack …
Nov 7, 2013 · The question: "Why is [etc.]" is a question form in English: Why is the sky blue? Why is it that children require so much attention? Why is it [or some thing] like that? When that …
How did the letter Z come to be associated with sleeping/snoring?
May 26, 2011 · See also Why Does ZZZ mean sleep? for another theory: The reason zzz came into being is that the comic strip artists just couldn’t represent sleeping with much. ... As the …
What's the proper way to handwrite a lowercase letter A?
Oct 31, 2017 · But why are there two different As? Back in ye olde days there were many ways to write a lower-case A. (The same went for other letters, for example þ was later written "y", …
Why is "pineapple" in English but "ananas" in all other languages?
Nov 7, 2013 · I don't think we are discussing whether "ananas" or "pineapple" was used first, but where it came from and why the English language does not use "ananas" today. I would say …
Reason for different pronunciations of "lieutenant"
Dec 6, 2014 · As to why present day usage is as it is: People can be contrary. It's possible the US adopted "Loo" because and only because the Brits said "Lef" -- or vice-versa. But it seems the …
The whys and the hows - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Apr 13, 2017 · The rule on apostrophes on plurals applies if the word in question is a bona fide word as a plural. My dictionary shows the plural of "why" with a simple "s." Ditto other words …
terminology - Why use BCE/CE instead of BC/AD? - English …
Why do people use the latter terminology? For one thing, I find it confusing. It doesn't help that BCE is similar to BC. But moreover, there is only one letter of difference between the two …
etymology - Why "shrink" (of a psychiatrist)? - English Language ...
I'm afraid I have to disagree here. From my understanding, and a recent article in the Atlantic, derived from the new text Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern …
Using hundreds to express thousands: why, where, when?
May 30, 2017 · Why change register half way through? [¶ Of course, even in the middle ages, educated professionals such as architects, military engineers and accountants would work to …
How did the word "beaver" come to be associated with vagina?
From "Why King George of England May Have to Lose His Beard: How the Game of 'Beaver' Which All England Is Playing Is So Threatening the Proper Reverence for the Throne That …
