Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Anti-Semitism and the Popular Press in France
The Dreyfus Affair lasted
twelve years, from
1894, when Captain
Alfred Dreyfus was
first arr ested and convicted
of treason by a military court,
to 1906, when he was finally absolved
of all guilt and reinstated in the army.
During the affair, most people in France
followed the events of the case through
the popular press, which had undergone
rapid expansion as public schooling
became more general and lit eracy
spread through the population. The
newspapers milked every episode of
the case for all of its sensational drama,
and editors openly took sides in order
to increase their circulation and profits.
The illustrated press was particularly
popular, and the images associated with
expressions of anti-Semitism became
ubiquitous in both the respectable and
the more popular press. Image A shows
Jakob Rothschild, a French Jewish banker,
stretching his demonic hands around
the globe. Edouard Drumont, the anti-
Semitic editor of La Libre Parole (Free
speech) used the scandal to launch his
own political career. His celebrity status
is evident in a caricature of himself that
appeared in a competing paper, Le Rire
(image B). Even illustrations that did not
aim at caricature could carry a powerful
message about the intensity of popular
anti- Semitism in France during the affair,
as in image C, which depicts young
people burning Alfred Dreyfus's brother
Mathieu in effigy during a demonstration.
(See also Dreyfus's degradation on
page 725.)
Images
Questions for Analysis
1. fiogf49gjkf0d What fears about the economy are
exploited in image A? (Compare this
with the image on page 720 of socialists
circling the globe, hand in hand.) |
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2. fiogf49gjkf0d Is Le Rire’s portrait of Edouard Drumont
(Image B) an anti-Semitic image
or is it critical of Drumont’s anti-
Semitism? |
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3. fiogf49gjkf0d Taken together, what do these images
tell us about the connections among
anti-Semitism, the popular press, and
the definitions of national identity
that were current in France during the
affair? |
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