Sayf at 23:15, 12 May 2013

2013-05-12T23:15:20Z

Sayf: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus | author = Jean-Denis Bredin | publisher = George Braziller | pub_date = 1986 | p..."

2013-05-12T23:14:35Z

Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus | author = Jean-Denis Bredin | publisher = George Braziller | pub_date = 1986 | p..."

New page

{{Infobox book
| name = The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus

| author = Jean-Denis Bredin
| publisher = George Braziller
| pub_date = 1986
| pages = 628
| isbn = 0807611751
| image = [[File:The Dynamite Club.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}} New York:

Bredin’s tome The Affair synthesizes the many different contexts inherent in 1894 Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish army officer was accused of treason, largely based on anti-Semitic feeling. Bredin describes the climate of anti-Semitism in France, the role of the Army (and the Catholic Church) as inseparable from the nation (534), and a shifting political situation in which the battle between Left and Right became a fight where “two opposing systems of values [and]…contrasting moralities” represented a clash of opposing modernities (538). Bredin explains, “The Affair was thus a confrontation, at the close of the nineteenth century, between two societies, two systems of values. The struggle ended with the victory of what [early French historian Ernest] Lavisse called the society of the Revolution over the society of the Old Regime” (538). Because socialists and moderate bourgeois united to work for Dreyfus’ exoneration, Bredin (using Zeev Sternhell’s argument) writes that this did allow for integration of the worker’s movement into the larger republic. In other words, “In order to counter the nationalist and clerical wave, the workers had joined in a common front with the liberal bourgeoisie” (525). But, as Bredin warns, the Affair also served to underscore and strengthen the discourse of anti-Semitism in France, and ultimately even though the “monarchist dream, the nonstalgia for a return to the ancient regime” had died, “nationalism was opening up new vistas to the forces of traditionalism” (527).

Bredin describes the social and economic climate of France at the time, in which capitalism was becoming entrenched and an increasingly powerful working class, coupled with a new middle-class adept at becoming successful in a new economic climate often clashed with the more traditional members of society, including those who equated the power of the Army with national success.

Bredin’s goal for the book is to tell the story of Dreyfus himself, but it is best read in context with others (including Sternhell) that illustrate the Affair’s link to the large political movements of the twentieth century including Fascism. For Sternhell, the roots of Fascism are to be found in France precisely because of events like the Boulanger Affair of 1888 and the Dreyfus Affair which served to radicalize politics and force reorientations that led to the strengthening of Fascist ideology. Bredin does not address this in full, but Sternhell argues that Fascism’s success lies in its reworking of Marxism to eliminate its materialist dialectic component while emphasizing its nationalist component, thus appealing to both Left and Right. Bredin cautions us though that he sees the Affair as having destroyed anti-Semitism in left-wing organizations (530) since it linked it permanently with reactionary ideology, even though popular anti-Semitism persisted until World War II.

[[Category:Modern European History]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Jean-Denis Bredin]]

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 | pages          = 628
 | isbn           = 0807611751
-| image          = [[File:The Dynamite Club.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
+| image          = [[File:The Case of Alfred Dreyfus.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
-}} New York:
+}}
-−
 Bredin’s tome The Affair synthesizes the many different contexts inherent in 1894 Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish army officer was accused of treason, largely based on anti-Semitic feeling. Bredin describes the climate of anti-Semitism in France, the role of the Army (and the Catholic Church) as inseparable from the nation (534), and a shifting political situation in which the battle between Left and Right became a fight where “two opposing systems of values [and]…contrasting moralities” represented a clash of opposing modernities (538). Bredin explains, “The Affair was thus a confrontation, at the close of the nineteenth century, between two societies, two systems of values. The struggle ended with the victory of what [early French historian Ernest] Lavisse called the society of the Revolution over the society of the Old Regime” (538). Because socialists and moderate bourgeois united to work for Dreyfus’ exoneration, Bredin (using Zeev Sternhell’s argument) writes that this did allow for integration of the worker’s movement into the larger republic. In other words, “In order to counter the nationalist and clerical wave, the workers had joined in a common front with the liberal bourgeoisie” (525). But, as Bredin warns, the Affair also served to underscore and strengthen the discourse of anti-Semitism in France, and ultimately even though the “monarchist dream, the nonstalgia for a return to the ancient regime” had died, “nationalism was opening up new vistas to the forces of traditionalism” (527).

The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus - Revision history

Sayf at 23:15, 12 May 2013

Sayf: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus | author = Jean-Denis Bredin | publisher = George Braziller | pub_date = 1986 | p..."