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

France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History and Culture) by Burns, Michael. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780312111670.

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.