book talk
Alfred Dreyfus: Antisemitism and Jewish Identity at the Turn of the Twentieth Century – In-person Event
In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French military, was falsely accused of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Over the next five years, his case divided France and riveted the world.
Maurice Samuels, the Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French at Yale University, and the Director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism, explores the ins and outs of the affair, focusing on the Jewish dimension of the case and especially on the question of antisemitism. What were the causes of antisemitism in fin-de-siècle France? What role did antisemitism play in the legal case against Dreyfus and in the affair that followed? How did Jewish communities around the world respond to the crisis? And what lessons can we draw for our current moment?
Following the talk, Samuels’ book, Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, will be available for sale and signing.
Please visit the related exhibit, for which Professor Samuels was academic advisor, The Dreyfus Affair in Postcards: Going Viral at the End of the 19th Century, in the Center’s Valentin Blavatnik Gallery.
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book talk
