Bernard-Lazare: Antisemitism and the Problems of Jewish Identity in Late Nineteenth-Century France

by Nelly Wilson

Overview

Bernard-Lazare (1865–1903) was a French Jewish writer who was the prime mover in the Dreyfus Affair. The Dreyfus Affair lies at the centre of this 1978 book as it was the turning point in Bernard-Lazare's life. In the first part of the book Dr Wilson traces his early career: his defence of the Symbolist aesthetic as a philosophy of freedom; his sympathy for oppressed individuality and minority groups, and his passion for social justice; above all his analysis of antisemitism where, initially, he argued for social assimilation only to reject such an idea later in favour of a concept of cultural pluralism. The second part offers a history of the Dreyfus Affair and the way Bernard-Lazare drew attention to its grave irregularities. Finally, the book explores how he came to espouse Jewish nationalism in a much more radical way than did Herzl, the founder of Zionism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521157919
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/21/2011
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

Frontispiece facing; Preface; Part I. Before the Dreyfus Affair: 1. Roots, milieu and Symbolism; 2. The journalist with a mission; 3. Anarchism; 4. 'Le Judaisme voilál'ennemi'; 5. Antisemitism, its history and causes; Part II. The Dreyfus Affair: 6. Involvement; 7. The Battle: Une erreur judiciaire: la vérité sur l'Affaire Dreyfus; 8. Behind the front lines; 9. The moral syndicate: the dreyfusard movement; Part III. After the Dreyfus Affair: 10. Antisemitism reconsidered; 11. Zionism; 12. Last battles and last works; Epilogue; Plates; Notes; Bibliography; Index.