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A Review of “The Dreyfus Affair”
The author of this article, besides trying to provide information about the Dreyfus Affair, is attempting to persuade readers of the historical significance of the Affair as a force that divided citizens of France and an event that had a great impact on the course of French politics. The author spends most of the article detailing the events of the Dreyfus affair, but equally important is the splitting of the country into Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards, and the political implications of the Affair. This article on the Dreyfus Affair does a good job overall at detailing not just the events of the Drefus Affair, but also the aftermath and consequences of the Affair. The author assumes that the main reason for the framing of Alfred Dreyfus and the polarization of the French people was that Dreyfus was Jewish. While this is entirely possible, the author provides little evidence regarding the history of anti-Semitism in France, or the reasons why the French government targeted Dreyfus in particular. It would be useful to have some background regarding the treatment of Jews in France before the Dreyfus affair. The way the author has presented the information, it appears that Dreyfus was framed either simply because he was Jewish, or, instead, for no reason at all. The most convincing aspect of the article is the author’s assertion that the Dreyfus affair had strong and long-lasting effects on French people and French government. The author makes direct connections between the conviction of Dreyfus and the future political struggles between the far right and the moderate liberals. The author also ties in that anti-Dreyfusards made up many of the members of the Vichy government as well as tying in the relation of Theodore Herzl and the Zionist movement. The article, subsequently, is a very good indicator of both short-term and long-term effects of the Dreyfus Affair in France. The least convincing aspect of the article is the author’s arguments regarding the real forces behind exposing Dreyfus’ innocence and the problems with his conviction. The author asserts that the real individuals responsible for exposing Dreyfus’ innocence were Dreyfus’ own brother Mathieu, the journalist Lazard, Colonel Picquardt, and Scheurer-Kestner. The author admits that writer Émile Zola has been given most of the credit for exposing Dreyfus’ innocence for his “J’accuse!” article in L’Aurare, but he provides no arguments to support his claim that Zola is not the main figure responsible for helping to clear Dreyfus’ name. The article only scarcely addresses any of the work done by the other figures mentioned by the author to help clear Dreyfus’ name, so the author’s assertion that Zola was not actually the most important person to help prove Dreyfus’ innocence is not supported adequately. The sources used by the author of this article appear almost adequate, but many of the sources are a half-century old or more, but perhaps some more current information might be useful. The author used a total of seven sources, and besides the lack of any very current sources, the list of references appears to be thorough. Although there may not have been any tremendous breakthroughs regarding the Dreyfus affair in the last few years, if the author cited sources that are more current, the reader could be sure that the information given in the article was completely current. The writing style of this article is rather simple, and, as a result, there is not an immense amount of depth on the subject matter. On one hand the article is easy to understand, however it is not extremely complex and leads one to wonder if the author has left out anything. It is also difficult at times to follow the timeline of the events of the Affair, and it would be helpful if the author had given a better sense of the flow of the Affair. In addition, even though there is a link to an article just on Alfred Dreyfus, having a little more background on the man himself in this article would have been helpful. This article on the Dreyfus Affair is generally well-written and gives a good description of the Affair and its aftermath in France, and is useful for anyone trying to get a general understanding of what the Affair was and why it is a significant moment in French history.
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