Alfred Dreyfus

An insightful new biography of the central figure in the Dreyfus Affair, focused on the man himself and based on newly accessible documents
 
On January 5, 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus’s cries of innocence were drowned out by a mob shouting “Death to Judas!” In this book, Maurice Samuels gives readers an entirely new insight into Dreyfus himself—from the point of view of the man at the center of the affair. He tells the story of Dreyfus’s early life in Paris, his promising career as an officer, his being falsely accused and imprisoned for selling secrets to Germany, the pardon he was eventually granted, and his life of obscurity after World War I.
 
Samuels’s striking perspective is enriched by a newly available archive of more than three thousand documents and objects donated by the Dreyfus family. Samuels argues, unlike other historians, that Dreyfus was far from an “assimilated” Jew. Rather, he epitomized a new model of Jewish identity made possible by the French Revolution, when France became the first European nation to grant Jews full legal equality. This book analyzes Dreyfus’s complex relationship to Judaism and to antisemitism over the course of his life—a story that, as global antisemitism rises, echoes still. It also shows the profound effect of the Dreyfus Affair on the lives of Jews around the world.

“The affair and its consequences, admirably and precisely presented in this study, compel us to be more vigilant when demagogues seek to divide us through the casual, and often purposeful, misuse of language.”—Ronald C. Rosbottom, Wall Street Journal

“Alfred Dreyfus is an admirable introduction not only to its nominal subject but to . . . great historical events.”—Geoffrey Wheatcroft, New York Review of Books

“Samuels departs from many previous scholars with his sharply rendered focus on the life of Alfred Dreyfus himself and the model of French Jewish identity that he embodied.”—Financial Times, “Best summer books of 2024: History”

“A short new book on Captain Alfred Dreyfus, . . . whose court cases divided France into two warring camps, could not have been better timed. . . . Samuels tells the story of the Dreyfus affair well.”—Ian Buruma, The Spectator

“A sensitive portrait of an intensely private man whose resistance and survival were truly heroic.”—Natasha Lehrer, Times Literary Supplement

“The evidence (or lack of it) that prompted Dreyfus’s initial arrest is a complex tale with many characters. Samuels provides a brilliant, detailed analysis . . . [and depicts a man] capable of great strength, courage and sensitivity.”—JP O’Malley, Irish Independent

“A commendable overview of the life of Dreyfus and his promising career as a French Army officer.”—Robert Shiels, Scottish Legal News

“[An] engrossing biography [that] bears the imprint of our times.”—Peter McPhee, Australian Book Review

“Samuels’s book offers a rounded portrait of Dreyfus and a succinct introduction to the affair.”—Munro Price, Literary Review

“This short biography places the man at the centre of the affair within the context of its unifying impact on contemporary Jewish identity while raising pertinent questions about the relationship between populism and democracy.”—Jewish Chronicle

Longlisted for The Wingate Literary Prize 2024, sponsored by The Wingate Foundation

“The Dreyfus affair is one of the moments where both modern anti-Semitism and crusading journalism and mass protest were born. Maurice Samuels provides a complex, lucid, narrative retelling that will simultaneously enrage any reader and inspire them with its tales of the stubborn search for justice. Even if you’ve read about Dreyfus before, you need to read this.”—Adam Gopnik, author of The Real Work

“An intimate portrait of the defiant rectitude of Alfred Dreyfus, the wrongfully accused French military officer whom Mark Twain called ‘the most infamously misused Jew of modern times.’ At a time when truth is flouted, bigotry rampant, and nationalism resurgent, Maurice Samuels provides an important account of a French society inflamed and divided by hatred of a deeply patriotic Jew. Exiled, abused, left for dead, Dreyfus never wavered in his fight for truth and a society of equal treatment for all. That fight continues to this day.”—Roger Cohen, Paris bureau chief, New York Times

“In this pioneering biography, Maurice Samuels restores Alfred Dreyfus to the affair that bears his name. In doing so, he rehabilitates an often disregarded form of modern Jewish identity and shows how one Jewish life could matter so much to so many others. A triumph.”—Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism against Itself

Maurice Samuels is the Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French and director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism at Yale University. He is the author most recently of The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal That Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern. He lives in Branford, CT.

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