"The Yids and their accomplices are wallowing in the mud, the filth, the torrent of shit they have unleashed," wrote Edouard Drumont, editor of La Libre Parole,
in 1898, at the height of the Dreyfus affair. It was by far the major political event in France at the time; a nationwide anti-Semitic response was triggered when the Jewish Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason. Emile Zola's famous J'accuse—a defense of Dreyfus—triggered even more anti-Semitic sentiment. Birnbaum, a professor of politics and philosophy at the Sorbonne, substantially broadens the scope of historical inquiry into the Dreyfus affair and raises vital questions. He has uncovered new materials showing that, as the controversy grew, many French cities and towns seethed with near-riots and pogroms: in Paris, 2,000 students and artists swarmed the streets and shouted, "Death to the Jews"; in Moulins, a Monsignor Dubourg led a rally that condemned "the sinister race of the stateless." What is more startling is that the police and government officials, many harboring anti-Semitic sentiments, "came forward as defenders of the rights for all citizens" and arrested protesters, rabble-rousers and agitators, thus preventing what might have become widespread murderous violence. Birnbaum's research breaks new ground, although at times the narrative is confusing and repetitious, and he does not explore as much as he might why these rabid forces of anti-Semitism were stopped by the authorities. Still, this is an important addition to the literatures of anti-Semitism and French history. (Nov.)
