Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters - Couverture souple

Begley, Louis

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0300168144 ISBN 13 : 9780300168143

Editeur : Yale University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Book by Begley Mr Louis

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

In December 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a brilliant French artillery officer and a Jew of Alsatian descent, was court-martialed for selling secrets to the German military attaché in Paris based on perjured testimony and trumped-up evidence. The sentence was military degradation and life imprisonment on Devils Island, a hellhole off the coast of French Guiana. Five years later, the case was overturned, and eventually Dreyfus was completely exonerated. Meanwhile, the Dreyfus Affair tore France apart, pitting Dreyfusards - committed to restoring freedom and honour to an innocent man convicted of a crime committed by another - against nationalists, anti-Semites, and militarists who preferred having an innocent man rot to exposing the crimes committed by ministers of war and the armys top brass in order to secure Dreyfuss conviction. Was the Dreyfus Affair merely another instance of the rise in France of a virulent form of anti-Semitism? In Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters, the acclaimed novelist draws upon his legal expertise to create a riveting account of the famously complex case, and to remind us of the interest each one of us has in the faithful execution of laws as the safeguard of our liberties and honour.

Biographie de l'auteur

Louis Begley is a bestselling novelist and a lawyer who retired after a forty-five-year career as partner in one of Americas great law firms. His fiction includes Wartime Lies, About Schmidt, and, most recently, Matters of Honor.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Yale University Press
• Date d'édition: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0300168144
• ISBN 13: 9780300168143
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 272