France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History & Culture)

France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History & Culture)
by Michael Burns

France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History & Culture)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Michael Burns
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-11-15
ISBN: 0312111673
Number of pages: 210
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Book Reviews of France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History & Culture)

Book Review: Very unorthodox approach
Summary: 5 Stars

There are two interesting things about this book:

(1) It tries to view the Dreyfus affair from the perspective of (a) the entire period of 1789 to 1945, and (b) the entire Dreyfus family (it even includes a family tree!).

(2) It is written like a novel, even though it is actually a history book. For example, beginning his discussion with Dreyfus's 18th century ancestors, Burns casually remarks on how one of these ancestors, being a butcher, must have had prodigious physical strength, and how (as per Jewish law and custom) he probably would sell the front half of the animal as kosher and sell the rear half to the gentiles due to the unkosher sinews (by contrast, Sephardi (Spanish and Middle Eastern) Jews tend to remove the individual sinews, a tedious process, and thereby render the rear half kosher). Burns also discusses the linguistic and cultural peculiarities of Ashkenazi (European) French Jewry in Alsance (of which Dreyfus's ancestors were a part), as contrasted with the French Sephardim (Spanish) in Bordeaux and Bayonnce, and how the French Enlightenment figures never doubted that the latter (being already acculturated to France) would be accorded emancipation, even as they were reluctant to emancipate the former (who were very insular).

The result is a history book that flows like a novel and includes a fascinating amount of both human character and element (as per (1) above), as well as side details of daily life and thought (as per (2) above).

Summary of France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History & Culture)

The Dreyfus affair ? the infamous account of Jewish army officer and French citizen, Alfred Dreyfus, unjustly convicted of treason in 1894 ? was the most significant political and social crisis of fin-de-siècle Europe. In the first book designed to introduce students to the broad outlines and significant legacies of the affair, the author deftly interweaves text with documents, tracing the course of events. He highlights the many issues connected with the case, including anti-Semitism, militant nationalism, socialism, the birth of modern Zionism, and the separation of church and state. Sixty-six documents are embedded in the narrative, offering students a broad range of sources to examine, including newspaper editorials, letters, trial testimony, and diary entries. A list of the principal characters is included in the appendices.

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