Awarded the Wolfson History Prize in 2010 and the Jewish Biography Award in 2010, Ruth Harris writes beautifully and intriguingly about a moment in French history that polarized society and undermined the French state. The effects were felt until the outbreak of the Second World War.

At the end of September 1894, a cleaning woman stole an undated and unsigned letter from the recycling bin of the German military attaché in Paris. The document contained French military secrets and, although it had been torn into pieces, it was reassembled by the French intelligence services. By October, a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was accused of being the author. As it turned out, he was completely innocent, yet few questioned the decision of the subsequent military trial that sentenced him to life of hard labor.

Public opinion was outraged, and the Minister of War, General Auguste Mercier, called for the reinstatement of the death penalty to execute Dreyfus. Despite the rejection of the request, Dreyfus was subjected to special conditions: instead of being sent to New Caledonia like other convicts, he was sent to the harsher prison of Niagu, and sentenced to isolation under terrible conditions. The French authorities did not expect – and probably did not want – him to survive.

Dreyfus's unchanging conviction was such that no one imagined it would be questioned, let alone that the case would become the scandal that almost brought down the French state. It invoked a change of political direction and transformed the way the country viewed itself and was viewed by others.

Pages: 560, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm