The Anti-Semitic Moment: A Tour of France in 1898 [Hardcover]

Pierre Birnbaum (Author), Jane Marie Todd (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0809065010 | ISBN-13: 978-0809065011 | Publication Date: October 1, 2002 | Edition: 1st

A controversial new look at a turning point in modern European history

In 1898, the Dreyfus Affair plunged French society into a year-long frenzy. In small villages and big cities, angry crowds paraded through the streets, attacking Jews and destroying Jewish-owned businesses. Anger about the imagined power of Jewish capital as well as fears of treason and racial degeneration made anti-Semitism a convenient banner behind which many social and political factions could fall in line. The anti-Semitic feelings that had been simmering in France for decades came boiling to the surface.

Until now, the details of this pogrom have slumbered in local archives, but here Pierre Birnbaum, the first to study the full range of events set in motion during the Dreyfus crisis, guides the reader on a tour of France during this tumultuous year. His innovative study makes it clear why, though prolonged violence threatened to topple the government, the institution of the state did not give way. Birnbaum shows not only that many Jews defended themselves but that police officers made mass arrests and Jewish lives and property were protected. His analysis of how and why public order was maintained offers surprising new insights.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"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.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is an impressive example of "microhistory" that should be welcomed by specialists in French history and politics. Birnbaum (politics and philosophy, Sorbonne), a prolific authority on French Jewry, documents a sensational episode in French history-the ferocious wave of anti-Semitism that gripped the nation in the wake of the Dreyfus affair. Drawing exhaustively from local archives, Birnbaum breaks new ground in re-creating the hysteria of the time-the demonstrations, parades, speeches, songs, press accounts, and other diatribes that rocked the French body politic in the seminal year of 1898 over the treason trial of a Jewish officer, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus. The author, whose rich examples include evidence from all over France, concludes that demonstrations in large cities and little towns probably attracted hundreds of thousands of people and represented a new kind of popular politicization. This timely and disturbing study raises critical issues of interest to scholars of French history and politics: how anti-Semitism intersected with reactionary politics and the diverse ideological passions of the time, how French Jews reacted and defended themselves, and how the forces of order nonetheless prevailed. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.
Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., N.J.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809065010
• ISBN-13: 978-0809065011
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,071,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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