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Bibframe Work

Title
Why the Dreyfus Affair matters
Type
Text
Subject
Dreyfus, Alfred, 1859-1935
Dreyfus, Alfred, 1859-1935--Influence. (LCSH)
Trials (Treason)--Political aspects--France (LCSH)
Antisemitism--France--History--19th century (LCSH)
France--History--Third Republic, 1870-1940. (LCSH)
Language
English
Illustrative Content
Illustrations
Geographic Coverage
France
Classification
LCC: DC354 .B44 2009
DDC: 944.081/2 full
Content
text
Summary
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.
Table Of Contents
"If they haven't been ordered to convict him, he will be acquitted this evening"
"The past is never dead"
"What do you care if that Jew stays on Devil's Island?"
"The truth marches on and nothing will stop it"
"Dreyfus was rehabilitated, Picquart became Minster of War, and nobody said boo"
Cast of characters
Chronology.
Authorized Access Point
Begley, Louis. Why the Dreyfus Affair matters