Alfred Dreyfus : man, milieu, mentality and Midrash / Norman Simms.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simms, Norman Toby.

Series:

Reference library of Jewish intellectual history.

Reference library of Jewish intellectual history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dreyfus, Alfred, 1859-1935.

Dreyfus, Alfred.

Trials (Treason)--Political aspects--France.

Trials (Treason).

Antisemitism--France--History--19th century.

Antisemitism.

Midrash.

France--History--Third Republic, 1870-1940.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 p.)

Place of Publication:

Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This groundbreaking book focuses on Alfred Dreyfus the man, with emphasis placed on his own writings, including his recently published prison workbooks and his letters to his wife Lucie. Through close reading of these documents, a much more sensitive, intellectual, and Jewish man is revealed than was previously suspected. He and Lucie, through their family connections and mutual loyalty, were interested in and supported the artistic, scientific, philosophical and historical movements that formed their Parisian milieu. But as an Alsatian Jew, Alfred was also critical of many aspects of technological and ideological developments, making his mentality one of skepticism as well as idealism. Norman Simms addresses the way Dreyfus perceived the world, challenged many of its assumptions and contextualized it in the style of a rabbinical midrash, a process that created what Alfred called a “phantasmagoria” of the Affair that bears his name, and also interprets the man, his milieu and his mentality in the style of a midrash, a creative, transformative reading.

Contents:

Front matter

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Bodies of Evidence

Chapter Three: The Phantasmagoria of a Secular Midrash

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781618110411

1618110411

OCLC:

864383501

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access