France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History, by Michael Burns (TPB, 1999, $1.75)
I had always heard of the "Dreyfus Affair" and wondered what it was.
What it was, was a miserable miscarriage of justice. Alfred Dreyfus was accused in 1894 of treason against France. He was tried in a secret, rigged trial, which sentenced him to solitary confinement at Devil's Island. His second trial was based on a forged document, and he was again judged guilty. Meanwhile France was near civil war. On one side were the government, army, conservatives, nationalists , anti-Semitics, and Catholics. On the other side were the intelligentsia, the progressives, socialists, and radicals, and most of foreign opinion. Dreyfus would eventually be pardoned, and even reinstated into the army. The divisions in France would, however, continue to fester, with the anti-Dreyfus camp evolving into collaborators with the Nazis in WWII. Even in 1990, a French poll showed that 70% of French citizens still are interested in the case.
This book reveals the events of the "Affair" by use of documents of the time. Look for it in the French history section.
PS: Of no importance to anyone but me- my favorite TV show of 1966, The Time Tunnel, did a show based on the Dreyfus Affair. Well, sort of based on. We are not talking great drama here. Just my crush on James Darren.
