Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century

by Ruth Harris

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.

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction, Biography, European History, 19th Century, Politics

560 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Dr. Ruth Harris is a Lecturer in History at Oxford University.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two stories of Alfred Dreyfus. One is the legal story of a young officer who, after a botched and corrupt investigation, was wrongly convicted of treason and imprisoned on Devil's Island, and of the attempts to correct a judicial error. The other is the story of a political and cultural conflict that divided France in the two implacably opposed camps of Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards, often breaking earlier friendships and family ties. The two stories were necessarily connected, but also essentially different, as expressed by the Dreyfusard Clemencau when he blurted that he was indifferent about the person Dreyfus.

This is very much the history of the second story. Ruth Harris duly gives us a description of Dreyfus and his family, and their fate; but her real interest is for the two opposed groups of intellectuals, politicians and lawyers. They could be generalized as one camp that embraced the secular enlightenment values of the French Republic, motivated by absolute concepts of justice and fairness that were enshrined in the declaration of human rights. And one camp that instead extolled its emotional and cultural ties to the motherland, and the French army as symbol of an emotional and deeply felt patriotism. But as Harris shows, both groups had their own internal divisions and contradictions. Her book is devoted to making us understand the motivations and actions of both groups.

This may be history, but in many ways it feels very actual, applicable as it appears to the current political divisions in the USA. Is this history repeating itself, or the historian projecting her contemporary opinions on the past? It is hard to tell. A century is a long, and it is difficult today to really understand the motivations of people separated from us by two world wars. The attempt to do so does not entirely satisfy, but this book remains an excellent effort.

[BrokenTune · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review first posted on BookLikes: http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/...

"The campaign for Dreyfus's final exoneration gathered pace in 1903 because it became linked to a partisan and bitter crusade against religious congregations, and not because there was a groundswell of support for his case. And even this campaign succeeded only because the Cour de cassation, the high court, used an obscure prerogative to take the case away from the system of military justice, which did not admit its error. The end of the Affair produced no clear conclusion and no real justice, merely a political truce."

The Dreyfus Affair is a fascinating and complicated subject, and this book does the story justice by approaching the events leading up to Dreyfus' conviction, imprisonment, and final release from a lot of different angles.

It's not the most entertaining read - and some parts are quite dry and academic - but it is quite a satisfying read - because Harris does not leave many stones unturned and as a result I have gained a much better understanding of fin de siecle France.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's heavy-going at times, but the sheer genius of this book lies in how well it captures the epic swath that was cut through French society by the Dreyfus Affair. So much so that it still resonates to this day. If you can make it through some of the middle sections (where a bit too much minor information to the Nth degree rules), this work will reward you with a solid understanding of an almost mystical time.

[GrandpaBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used by Robert Harris as a source for his recent novel 'An Officer and a Spy.' Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army who in 1894 was wrongly accused by the Army of spying for the Germans. The extraordinary efforts by the Army to frame Dreyfus followed by his imprisonment on Devil's Island is stunning. As the years went by another Army officer discovered that Dreyfus had been framed (the officer Picquart in the Robert Harris novelization of the Affair) and the Army turned on him as well. The roles of the those fighting for Dreyfus on the political left (the Dreyfusards) versus the anti-Dreyfusards on the right, the role of the Catholic church conspiring with the Army and the right against Dreyfus plus the anti-Semitism exhibited by the majority of those against Dreyfus (and even for Dreyfus) is explored by Ruth Harris. I struggled with the book at times mainly because there was so many individuals and layers discussed by Ms. Harris that at times I had difficulty keeping track of them all. I would definitely recommend reading Ms. Harris' book for a better understanding of "The Affair" in fin de siecle France that practically tore the country apart after 1894 through Dreyfus' eventual redemption in 1906, but be patient and don't give up on the book.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this a while back for research for a history essay. Not the best out of the many books on Dreyfus and French turn of the century culture/politics, but it was very well organized and concise.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hugely interesting story which was somehow turned into a bit of a slog to get through. I picked this off my shelf after watching Paris Police 1900 and wanting to know more.

The interesting elements of the Dreyfus Affair are sufficiently absorbing to get through to the end: the discovery of the bordereau and hunt for the spy, the framing of Dreyfus and his trial, the public unraveling of the false evidence against him, the trials and convictions of the Picquart (who uncovered the real German spy) and Emile Zola (who mobilised the support for Dreyfus), Dreyfus’ second court-martial and reconviction. Perhaps like the actual history, Dreyfus appears only briefly at the beginning and end. However, a huge amount of the book is devoted to the Dreyfusards (his supporters) and anti-Dreyfusards, including what motivated and how they got involved, what their position was, and the network of interactions with others involved in the affair. Harris explicitly sets out to bust the myth that these were monolithic blocs, and in particular wanted to unpick the glowing “legend” of the Dreyfusards, exposing their faults and contradictions. And therein lies the problem for a lay reader like me: I didn’t really know who any of these people were, and she writes about them as if you already have a degree of investment in them. Hence she goes into incredible depth about a slightly bewildering myriad of people talking or writing about Dreyfus, either for or against, and I just didn’t find that to be so interesting.

On the other hand, there are some incredibly interesting and dramatic aspects of the history, and frankly it’s a really shocking story. It begins with a cleaner working at the German embassy for French intelligence, who retrieves fragments of a memo - the “bordereau” - that shows the Germans have a spy in the French Army. After France’s terrible defeat to Germany 20 years earlier, this is a particularly incendiary development. The investigators of the Statistical Bureau cast around for a suspect and land on Capt Alfred Dreyfus. There is virtually no evidence against him, and so the investigators forge a load of evidence to strengthen the case. Dreyfus was picked as the suspect because he was a rare Jew in the officer corps of a cosmopolitan Alsatian background, who was very capable and had risen on merit alone, much to the jealousy of his largely Catholic, aristocratic, nationalist colleagues, who relied on privilege to get where they got to and weren’t that capable. Anti-Semitism was shockingly rife in France, driven in particular by Catholics (the majority in the country) and the right-wing who were pro-army, which was elevated to a unique status in France. Monarchists and anti-Republicans, lamenting what they saw as the decline of France, were in this mix. On this basis, Dreyfus was obviously the spy, and was convicted as such in 1894 on evidence that was almost entirely fabricated. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guyana, where he wasn’t expected to survive more than a few years.

In 1896, the new head of the Statistical Bureau, a French officer named Picquart, stumbled across the real spy with some new evidence. His investigation concluded with absolutely solid evidence that the real spy was Count Esterhazy, a major, who Harris describes as an archetypal fin-de-siècle villain. He was a layabout, deeply in debt from gambling, bitter about how he felt France and the army had not given him what he felt it owed him. He even later confessed (though later again retracted it). Nonetheless, after a court-martial in 1898 of just two days, he was acquitted and found innocent of espionage; afterwards he fled to England where he was able to earn some money giving newspaper interviews. Worse than Esterhazy’s acquittal, Picquart was then put on trial essentially for uncovering the real spy and sentenced to two years in prison for his troubles. All the evidence was now in the public domain, and influential people like Emile Zola galvanised a campaign to free Dreyfus, who was slowly dying in the tropical penal colony, where he was being kept in total isolation. For his trouble, Zola was put on trial and found guilty, though his prison sentence was commuted to exile from France. Henry, the French officer who had forged the evidence against Dreyfus, committed suicide now that his forgeries had been exposed; he was lauded as a hero by the anti-Dreyfusards.

Anti-Semitic riots occurred and the anti-Dreyfusards even attempted a coup d’état.

Finally the Dreyfusards, a diverse set often networking through salons, convinced the government to re-run Dreyfus’ court-martial in 1899. The army chose to hold it in the strongly Catholic garrison town of Rennes, a hostile town to Dreyfus. He was brought back across the Atlantic, a scarecrow from tropical disease and malnutrition, with teeth missing, and barely able to speak from years of solitary confinement; he looked close to death. Thus Labori, Dreyfus’ defence lawyer, was able to get shot in the back among the crowds outside the courthouse, his attempted assassin escaping unimpeded and to this day unidentified, and Labori left on the ground unaided for several hours. Appallingly the court-martial found Dreyfus guilty a second time, again based on all the forged evidence which had been publicly debunked. The army had wheeled out some 80 witnesses making false allegations against Dreyfus. Not long after, before he could be shipped back to Devil’s Island, the French president pardoned Dreyfus - rather than exonerating him. There was also a mass amnesty for everyone involved in the affair. It wasn’t until 1906 that the government finally exonerated Dreyfus and reinstated him in the army. He served in the First World War, as did his son. Both survived. Alfred Dreyfus died in 1935. His granddaughter was deported to Auschwitz in 1942, where she died.

The case convinced Theodor Herzl of the need to establish the state of Israel, as the rampant anti-Semitism in supposedly liberal and egalitarian France showed to him that Jews could never be safe anywhere.

Harris also maintains that the Dreyfus Affair also created the French intellectual, now a staple of French life.

I was blown away by this story and the appalling injustice. What I found particularly mindblowing was the preference by the authorities to ignore the real spy and instead prosecute an innocent man who they knew was innocent, letting the real spy continuing to operate. It’s so shocking. The extent of anti-Semitism was also shocking.

So it should have made for a gripping story, but I felt overwhelmed by the detail on the Dreyfusard and anti-Dreyfusards positions and activities.

I was struck throughout of contemporary situations again. The way that French society bitterly divided in two over the affair, between the anti-Dreyfusards (anti-Semitic, Catholic, pro-army, xenophobic, nationalist) and Dreyfusards (more liberal, cosmopolitan, intellectual). The anti-Dreyfusards were happy to overlook any lies in the name of their cause. Nobody in French society was neutral on the affair, it divided families, and the sides fractured but never reconciled. It reminded me a lot of Brexit.

It was a huge event in modern French history, which still resonates today, which was why I was surprised and a bit ashamed not to know more about the Affair. My mind was blown once again to read that the French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in 2021 questioned Dreyfus’ innocence in the case - completely falsely of course.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I frequently had to Wikipedia the Dreyfus Affair and never really understood what it was or what it meant, except that it was a Big Deal. Now I know.

I feel it could have been shorter, or moved at a quicker pace, or perhaps zoomed out a bit more to talk about its role in the build up to WWI or what it meant for France internationally. I am sure the deep dive into the salons and politics and figures of fin de siecle Paris were lost on me a little, though I still feel they could have been brought to life a little more fully.

[Wendell · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a kid, I was gripped by Barbara Tuchman's account of the Dreyfus Affair in her The Proud Tower (a loose journalistic account of Europe and the US in the years before the First World War) and it always fascinated me, if from afar. Harris here takes a comprehensive look at the embattled French army captain and the convulsions that gripped both France and the world as a result of the trumped-up espionage case against him at the close of the nineteenth century. Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French army, was framed for espionage by a group of higher-ranking army officers whose motives ranged from outright anti-Semitism to covering up their own counterespionage incompetence. Convicted and sent to Devil's Island, Dreyfus became a worldwide cause celebre, as foreign papers breathlessly covered the scandal and France itself became a house divided. Harris does a great job of showing how the latter was simply an airing of long-held grievances, pitting, in general, progressives against conservatives, but with some surprising and not so surprising overlap. Reading this at the turn of a politically contentious year in the States, it's downright eerie how much it prefigures contemporary society, culture, and politics on this side of the Atlantic. Edouard Drumont, fanatically anti-Semitic editor of La Libre Parole, was something of a precursor to FOX News' Roger Ailes (along with similar journalistic practices), and the passions and prejudices of both camps' supporters frequently, if not generally, outweighed the wrongs of the case itself, with right-wing activists consciously emphasizing emotion and tradition in lieu of facts and reason as arguments or motives for action, and certain varieties of left-wing activists clashing with each other over the proper use and deployment of causes or symbols (the rancor over Dreyfus's eventual acceptance of a pardon for something he didn't do feels a lot like the ongoing Hillbot-Berniebro slagging that should have wound up by Christmas, if not earlier). And all this against the backdrop of a country fretting over its allegedly threatened power and (often self-) image. That said, Harris concludes with a few nods to the recent headscarf furore in France (the book came out about six years ago), so there are plenty of other parallels to be drawn. All in all, an engrossing account of L'Affaire that does a great job with the case's nuts and bolts but which draws its true power from its seismic cultural effect.

[Antenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is hard to identify a modern event which has had as much impact on society as the trials and imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus on what we now believe to be a trumped up espionage charge of relative insignificance. Having read recently Piers Paul Read's very detailed yet clear and moving account of this, from the arrest of Dreyfus in 1894 to his pardon and reinstatement in the army in 1906, I turned to Ruth Harris for a wider analysis of Dreyfusards versus anti-Dreyfusards.

In the promising introduction, Harris emphasises how families were divided by the Dreyfus affair, with people on both sides often holding contradictory and conflicting views about everything except the innocence or guilt of the man at the heart of it all, or at least his right to a retrial or declaration of innocence. The author presents "two Frances" fighting "for the nation's soul": on one hand, the Dreyfusards, mainly republicans, Protestants, or socialists, upholding Truth and Justice in their demands for a retrial versus the anti-Dreyfusards, often Catholic, anti-semitic, with monarchist sympathies, champions of Tradition and Honour, either convinced of the guilt of Dreyfus or prepared to sacrifice him rather than overthrow the ruling of a military court when they were concerned to support and build up the army after the humiliation of defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

I do not mind that only brief sections of this book are devoted to Dreyfus himself. I admire the author's depth of research and evident deep knowledge, and perhaps, with 137 pages of notes and bibliography, this is not intended for a general reader. Much as I wanted to get absorbed, I found the reading of this excessively hard going. There is a surfeit of detail in an indigestible form, made worse by a fragmentation of information e.g. on the anti-Dreyfusard Maurice Barrès, and the inclusion of specialist terms with inadequate explanation for a non-expert e.g. page 137 (paperback version) references to revolutionary Blanquists and revanchists from the Ligue de la patrie française. In short, there is a failure to distinguish clear, major points from a morass of over-condensed detail on too many characters and attitudes.

I would like to find another book on this of period of French history, but was forced to the disappointed conclusion that it was not worth the expenditure of time to plough through this, referring to other sources for clarification on the way.

[Bas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written and emotionally hitting overview of the Dreyfus affair. The France of the end of the 19th century is greatly brought to live and all the different aspects of the affair are well illustrated. Seeing that this event played such a huge role both in the rise of antisemitism in France and in the rise of the public intellectual, it's good that the books gives both a lot of attention. The most striking aspect of the book was how certain aspects of it sound so close to contemporary debates: the strong presence of conspiracy theories and the inability of rational reasoning to delegitimize it and an extreme polorization. At the same time the book never forgets where this affair is all about: an innocent man convicted on false evident for the simple reason for who he is. Alfred Dreyfus and his family fight for justice is the bittersweet center of this book and works very well.

My only big issue with the book is that author wants to be both evenhanded as mark herself different compared to others who written about these events in the past. Nothing wrong with that, those are positive qualities. But I do think she sometimes goes a little bit too far for my taste. She wants to argue some kind of 'centrist' version of the facts where both sides did some good and bad and I just don't really think her own facts support that. But all by all this was a very readable and impressive read !

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harris examines the Dreyfus Affair in the context of the political and social upheaval of the fin de siecle. Contesting a traditional reading of right-wing anti-Semitism joining with ultra-nationalism to create a monolithic anti-Dreyfusard movement, Harris explores a variety of differing philosophies held by the major players involved. The Dreyfusards as well featured an array of personalities that put aside historical differences to join the battle to overturn the Dreyfus conviction. Enemies became friends during the affair, and while some would come to change their worldview in the crucible of French political upheaval, others were merely hardened to their extremist positions (whether left or right).

The book is also a study in the way religious symbolism can cross lines of faith as the most rabid of the anti-clerical intellectuals could find Christian allegory in the Affiar, or Jewish secular-assimilationists who had shunned the idea of a Jewish universalism could suddenly embrace Zionism.

The Affair challenged the way people viewed themselves, Republicanism, and French identity as the 19th century drew to a close.

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Perhaps the definitive study of the Dreyfus Affair. Investigates every aspect of the episode, the various factions, their composition, their motives, the struggle for justice, the divisions and fall-out, the setbacks amd disappointments, and the after-effects, felt long into the 20th century. Hard to see how this can be bettered.

It however a scholarly approach that assumes some prior knowledge on the part of its readers so perhaps not for anyone new to this period of French history.

[Helen Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book for the faint-hearted.A very scholarly work and not an easy read. It is a fascinating dissection of a political scandal which still resonates in French life. Emile Zola emerged not just as a literary giant but also a man of principle.Alfred Dreyfus stood vigil over his coffin.......

[Rayrumtum · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed by this book. I read it because I wanted to know more about the case. There was that, but there was a whole lot of French intellectual history that was not my cup of tea. Scholars of French literature probably would appreciate it more than did I.

[LRKK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a simply magnificent work. Smart, deeply researched and thought through, clearly written, brilliantly paced, it pulls you forward, chapter by chapter, to neither tragedy nor triumph but a human and humane blend of both.

[AskHistorians]

There are a million books on the Dreyfus affair, but this is the best one. It's a bit of a behemoth - it goes into a lot more detail than Burns' documentary history, but still worth it.

[Alix H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super intéressant, très bien écrit et documenté par Ruth Harris, cette historienne américaine.

Cela m'a ouvert les yeux sur la société française de fin de siècle et m'a permis de tirer quelques parallèles :

1. L'impact de la défaite de 1870 face aux Allemands et l'implosion similaire qu'allait vivre la société allemande après la première guerre mondiale.

2. la naissance des intellectuels sous l'Affaire Dreyfus, caractéristiques de notre société française actuelle: ces intellos opiniâtres qui débattent dans les émissions politiques et d'actualité.

3. L'union des gauches à l'époque et la force du front populaire puis du parti socialiste sous F Mitterrand et enfin aujourd'hui.... on a LFI! Je n'avais pas réalisé que ça datait d'aussi loin dans le temps.

4. Le débat politique rendu passionnel à l'époque de l'Affaire, aspect passionnel que l'on retrouve dans toutes les manifestations françaises et notamment avec les gilets jaunes.

5. le poids de l'antisémitisme de l'époque (d'une force incroyable, je ne réalisais pas), l'envie des Alsaciens d'être perçus comme étant français et non juif ou allemand, et aujourd'hui le rejet des immigrés musulmans par la société française mais la grande différence aujourd'hui c'est aussi le rejet des valeurs françaises par les français issus de l'immigration musulmane qui ne se retrouvent pas dans la société française actuelle.

Ce qui m'a choqué c'est le manque complet de considération des Dreyfusards pour Alfred Dreyfus. Il n'était plus considéré comme un individu, un être humain mais un objet au service d'une cause qu'il devait servir, ce principe de justice. A se demander, justice pour qui ?

Enfin, sans surprise, la capacité d'une organisation humaine à mentir de manière effrénée pour se couvrir. Dans ce cas-ci l'armée française de fin de siècle, à l'époque actuelle toutes les organisations en France et ailleurs (église catholique, organisations sportives comme l'Ohio State Buckeyes) qui couvrent les abus sexuels. La capacité au mensonge pour nuire à autrui et se protéger était infini à l'époque et l'est tout autant aujourd'hui.

Pour finir, un extrait que j'ai adoré au sujet du Dreyfusard Picquart : ‘it is pure barbarism that the cult of beauty is no nearer to being established than that of truth and justice; and yet, how happy the world would be in the adoration of this Trinity.’

Ce livre a été un excellent compagnon de voyage dans le passé.

[Kabaal van Napels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable but not an easy read

"The Man on Devil's Island: Alfred Dreyfus and the Affair that Divided France" by Ruth Harris tells the story of France during the "Dreyfus Affair", the famous political scandal that polarized France at the turn of the twentieth century and haunted it for decades to come. The main events of the Affair function as the glue of the story, with the protagonists on both sides of the fault line taking centre stage and shaping the political, social and cultural landscape of "fin de siècle" France.

Harris is convincing in her conclusion that the Affair was not a straightforward struggle between right and wrong or the political left and right, but a result of the unique context in France at the time. She is immaculate in dissecting, analyzing and assessing the many dimensions that made the Dreyfus Affair so intense that it stirred almost everybody in France to choose sides. Truth and justice versus tradition and honour, Catholicism versus secularism, republicanism versus monarchism, thought versus feeling, socialism and internationalism versus nationalism and anti-Semitism were all played out during the Affair against the backdrop of revanchism towards Prussia for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in the war of 1870. The writer explains all these dimensions by describing the complex, emotional dynamics between persons, groups and ideas that powered the Affair. The not so surprising outcome is that many key-players joining the bandwagon of this cause célèbre were driven by less than principal motives and were full of ambiguity in their own convictions.

"The Man on Devil's Island" is well researched and Ruth Harris shows how erudite she is in the subject matter. Yet, as fascinating this story is, this is not an easy read and I found myself struggling through parts of the book. The dynamics in the relationships between key-players are described in minute detail hampering the readability of the story. This is aggravated by the fact that the majority of the main characters (with Zola and Clemenceau being exceptions) are for the general reader obscure at best. All in all, "The Man on Devil's Island" requires perseverance from the reader and is not suitable for a novice looking for an introduction of the Dreyfus Affair.

[Mark Bowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weighty book (in both senses) and I have to admit that I skimmed large parts of it (spiritualism, religious and philosophical nit-picking) but it is a valuable text. The author is concerned to be even-handed, exploring the idiosyncracies and inconsistencies of the Dreyfusards and trying to see the positive sides of the anti-Dreyfusards. This is a fine academic approach and no doubt uncovers some of the complexities and nuances of the Affair that other accounts may have missed.

However, in the end I remain convinced that any errors and disagreements of the Dreyfusards (mainly developing after the perverse outcome of the Rennes court martial and the insulting 'pardon' and 'amnesty' that followed) pale into insignificance beside the lies, forgeries and gross moral turpitude of the principal anti-Dreyfusards. Hubert-Joseph Henry knew damn well that Dreyfus was innocent almost from the start and yet he lied, broke the law and forged documents to keep Dreyfus behind bars. He seems to have been unaware that his activities, designed to uphold the 'honour' of the French army, had the opposite effect, exposing that 'honour' as a vicious mockery. In contrast Georges Picquart, flawed though he may have been, risked his career and his life in the determined and persistent pursuit of proving Dreyfus's innocence (not that difficult given the nature of the evidence) and persuading the authorities to accept that innocence (much more difficult given their determination to cover their backs and their lack of reason or common decency). As Picquart did not particularly like Dreyfus his activities are all the more remarkable, driven entirely by a disinterested love of truth and justice.

The start of the Affair was insignificant, the documents that Esterhazy sold to the German authorities being of almost no military value and certainly coming nowhere near to compromising 'national security'. But in the end it acquired vast significance. Alfred Dreyfus himself believed that his sufferings had been instrumental in moving French society, politics and culture in a positive direction. Maybe he was right but...?

[Bonnie Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nineteenth Century France holds many lessons for 21st Century America, and none more useful than learning about the Dreyfus Affair. This book is a different, detailed take on how the Affair riveted and divided fin de siecle France. It explores how the leaders on both sides of the scandal used it to advance political goals. It is a bit of a slog—there are countless characters and the author assumes general familiarity with the facts of the Affair. I appreciated the nuance—not all Dreyfusards were heroes. It illuminates the reasons France, after its humiliating defeat by Germany in 1870, needed to believe in the Army, and refused to believe the Army could have hatched such a huge conspiracy all the way to the top. And anti-Semitism, so much anti-Semitism.....

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a macro-level analysis of the Dreyfus Affair—how it affected French society collectively and at the level of institutions—this ain’t it. Harris’s book is more a micro-level “who’s who” of the central personalities and big egos in both the Dreyfusard and anti-Dreyfusard camps. I was hoping for more of a sociological approach to understanding this part of French history, and was left wanting. Also worth noting: if you have a decent working knowledge of post-Revolutionary French history (and of 19th century European history more generally) this will be a much easier read for you than it was for me!

[Kate Parr · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a hard slog, mainly because I don't believe we needed a potted biography of every single person who wrote a pamphlet, waved a placard, held a salon or forged a document (and apparently there were a lot of them). By the end I had no clue who anyone except Dreyfus' immediate family were, which original side they'd been on, which faction they had later fallen into etc etc etc. I'm glad to know more about this very strange period of French history, but I would have got more from a quick squizz through the Wiki page.

[A.J. Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely book about political polarization and antisemitism. Things haven't changed much in the past 100 or so years. The author has great insights into the emotions of the era that drove people's actions, which is something that is often overlooked. We can see the same thing happening today. I also recommend the author's book on Lourdes.

[Jay Daze · Rating 5 out of 5]

The start of modern culture wars and the messiness of human motivation. I also found it a great book to better understand some of the various cultural cleavages in modern France. It is not hard to take this book at look at North America now.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Partisanship, division, a country wrestling with threats from the outside and people viewed as outsiders becoming French. This book tells a story that feels familiar in the modern age.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I wanted to know more about the Dreyfus affair than just "J'accuse!" This went into depth (real depth) about many of the people involved, the intimate political and religious dynamics of the time, and the personal dynamics in the Drefusard and anti-Drefusard camps. I found the impact of the Dreyfus affair on the development of social concept of laïcité – and vise versa – to be the most intriguing part.

This book assumed a much greater knowledge of French history than I have, which was occasionally but not always a problem. Quotations are translated into English but names of institutions, book titles, etc are often not, so I think it'd be a challenge for someone who doesn't speak enough French to get by with that.

It was uncanny to read, as many of the Drefusard and anti-Drefusard dynamics felt extremely familiar – le plus ça change, I guess. You will also now never be able to convince me that the "I, an intellectual" meme isn't actually a Drefusard reference.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first and fourth sections of the book were quite enjoyable to read, but the middle was such a bore! Ruth Harris leaves many issues unexplored, most notably the "Panama Scandal" which is mentioned maybe a dozen times but never once explained, while exploring other matters with far, far too much depth that they often seem out of place, only slightly associated with the issue. Otherwise, it is a very important issue which resonates so very much in the 21st century and ought to be an Affair known by all.

[Suzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this - amazing that this case isn't known more widely or in more depth. Sometimes the sheer number of people involved in the case at any given time was difficult to follow; one to be studied rather than read on the train I think.

[Tdr85 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the years I have read many books about the Dreyfus affair including Piers Paul Read's recent work. Other than Michael Burn's history of the Dreyfus family this is probably the best. It describes the affair itself in fine prose but delves deeper into the background forces surrounding the Affair in a very stimulating manner. Harris is especially good on the religious forces at work in 1890s France (she has written a book on Lourdes) and looked more deeply at the anti-Dreyfus intellectuals and given them a balanced hearing. The polarizing aspects of the affair are worthy of study today, and it is heartening to know that France didn't implode from the whole episode - but it did wear itself out.

[Laurent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched but perhaps too acedemic for the average reader (?)

I have always been interested in the Dreyfus Affair given my partial French background and was interested to have a go at this book which would give a thorough context to the drama that unfolded in France and more particularly its causes and effect on French society.

In that, there's no doubt that Ruth Harris' book give a thorough (and accurate?) account of this and will be of interest to people who want to understand the historical context of the Affair. I found some of the areas really facinating, particularly the coverup, how it was achieved and then continued and of course, Zola's famous 'J'accuse' open-letter within all of this.

Having said all of this, this book is a little bit of a case of 'buyer beware'. If you're an average, non-acedemic reader like me, it'd say the book might not suit. Specifically, this book reads much more like an acedemic paper than a novel - in fact, there are almost 80 pages worth of references at the end of the book. I'm by no means saying this is a bad book or that people won't get value out of it - especially since, from what I've read it is very accurate.

It's more to do with the fact that if you're not particularly familiar with case, as with me, you might struggle a bit. It goes deal about many of the many people involved with the case, their motives and how they acted both positvely or negatively. However the book doesn't really go into much detail about Alfred Dreyfus himself. For example, you don't really get an indepth look at his time on Devil's Island, how he survived, him mental state etc. I don't think that this is a glaring omission, since I acknowledge that Harris' goals in writing this book are to look at social impact.

I'ts just more that I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who's look for an 'introduction', if you like, into the affair. In fact, because the book is aimed at a certain level, with the assumption that readers will already have some understanding of the context of the Affair, I felt I didn't really gain that much about the Affair through this book.