Monday, June 30, 2014

“The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two”, by Piers Paul Read



416 pages, Bloomsbury Press, ISBN-13: 978-1608194322

It began in a wastepaper basket and ended up changing the course of European history. The prosecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfus for espionage and treason – and his subsequent vindication – plus the severe divisions the affair caused France have been the subject of countless histories and retellings. It is good to be reminded of the affair, because in some ways it is still current: the wife of Dominic Strauss-Kahn, for instance, recently compared her husband to Alfred Dreyfus as a victim of injustice, and people made these sorts of often stupid comparisons all through the 20th Century. Certainly, the anti-Semitism that was the hallmark of the case has not gone away.

The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two by Piers Paul Read brings the novelist’s eye for detail and for a drama full of unforgettable characters. When a note from a French army officer to a German military attachĂ© was rescued from the trash in 1894, Dreyfus was an easy target as author of the note. Read gives a full and not fully complimentary portrait of the soldier at the heart of the affair: sure, he was a Jew, but he did not believe in the precepts of Judaism and had a secular devotion to the liberty, equality, and fraternity of France; he was hard to get to know and had little sense of humor (it might be that the plot against him was a response to him personally rather than to his supposed religion); he only evidence against him was the handwriting on the note from the wastebasket, but the handwriting wasn't his, and the explanation came that he had forged the note in someone else’s hand; he was disgraced in a famous ceremony in which his uniform was shredded and his sword broken, and sent to lifetime exile on Devil's Island, where he was kept in isolation and inhumane squalor.

He was there for almost five years. His family worked to get his release, while the generally reactionary and generally Catholic army continued to be discredited as more documents were revealed as forgeries. The famous 1898 essay J’accuse…! by the novelist Emile Zola was to make a significant change in the momentum of the case, naming officers who had been involved in the conspiracy. The generally leftist Dreyfusards hailed it as brilliant and heroic, and the generally right-wing anti-Dreyfusards thought it an outrage. Anti-Semitic riots were sparked throughout France, but Dreyfus was brought back from Devil’s Island. He was given a second court martial at Rennes which absurdly found him guilty again, but cited extenuating circumstances and set him free. The conviction, however, disgusted the rest of the world. France was getting ready for its Universal Exposition in 1900, and had to face the very real prospect that there would be an international boycott. The president of France offered Dreyfus a pardon, and he accepted, infuriating many of his most vehement supporters. He never got an acquittal by fellow officers in a court martial, as he had wanted, but after being pardoned he was legally declared innocent, reinstated in his beloved army, and awarded the LĂ©gion d’honneur.

For France, the victory of the Dreyfusards meant that ever afterward special regard would be given to political views of the “intellectuals” – those like Zola, Proust, Anatole France, Monet, and Poincare. Radical politicians were able afterwards to expel religious orders from France and to close Catholic schools. The injustices thus done as the pendulum swung to the other side tend to be overlooked, while historians will forever make the links that so many anti-Dreyfusards wound up in the anti-Semitic Vichy regime of Nazi collaborators. Read, however, does not spend much time on the 20th Century repercussions of the affair, instead concentrating on what Zola himself said of it while it was roiling: “What a poignant drama, and what superb characters.” For its engaging and intelligent presentation, I would easily recommend The Dreyfus Affair to anyone unfamiliar with the event but interested in learning the details. Others who are familiar with it may find too little that’s new to justify another book on the subject. Those looking for an understanding of anti-Semitism, or looking to draw parallels between the time of Dreyfus and our own unreasoning period will probably find a mixed bag.
 

Friday, June 27, 2014

“Caesar’s Commentaries: On The Gallic War & On The Civil War”, by Gaius Julius Caesar, translated by W.A. MacDevitt, edited by James H. Ford


340 pages, El Paso Norte Press, ISBN-13: 978-0976072614

Caesar’s Commentaries are an essential read for anyone who aspires to a good education. For several centuries, English public schools (meaning private) required their students to translate Caesar’s Commentaries from the original Latin; since the decline of written Latin for church and scholarly purposes, translating Caesar has fallen out of favor. But the main reasons for reading Caesar still persist: It provides an excellent model of clear, simple exposition and demonstrates how a man of substance should express himself. Make no mistake about it, Caesar was a clever, calculating, complicated man, but when he wrote, he was certain about what he intended to say and said it. MacDevitt’s translation is not that of a schoolboy; it is that of a schoolmaster; where there is a subtle reference in Caesar’s prose, MacDevitt captured it in his English translation clearly and succinctly.

There are eight “books” in the Commentaries, each comprising about 15-25 pages with each book a reflection on the previous year’s effort in Gaul. The style is plain and to the point, written in order to curry favor in Rome and document his campaigns. Though Caesar is often guilty of inflating enemy numbers (according to most historians) he nevertheless painstakingly records the relations between the tribes of the time: Gauls, Celts, and the many Germanic peoples are all referenced at one time or another. The final three books regarding the Civil War are longer, as they were meant by Caesar to record his justification for launching the Civil War in the first place. How convinced you are by his arguments rather depends on what you think of Caesar.

It is a very interesting read, but can be hard to follow if you are not a history buff or a fan of Roman History and/or Caesar, but if you want to get a real sense of history with first-hand knowledge, then this is a great read, for when you read Caesar’s Commentaries, you are not reading the ranting’s of a third-rate politician: you are reading the words of one of the most important figures in the entire history of the human race. The accomplishments of Julius Caesar, whether for good or evil, will stand as a monument to human ambition for all time.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

“The Baltic: A History of the Region and its People”, by Alan Palmer


448 pages, Overlook Press, ISBN-13: 978-1585674466

In this long-needed history of the peoples and nations surrounding the Baltic Sea, we pass through the legendary castles of Elsinore and Halsingborg to enter a unique landscape and culture. Alan Palmer traces the history of the Baltic region from its early Viking days and its time under the Byzantine Empire through its medieval prime when the Baltic Sea served as one of Europe’s central trading grounds. Palmer addresses both the strong nationalist sentiments that have driven Baltic culture and the early attempts at Baltic unification by Sweden and Russia. The Baltic also dissects the politics and culture of the region in the 20th Century, when it played multiple historic roles: it was the Eastern Front in the First World War; the setting of early uprisings in the Russian Revolution; a land occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War; and, until very recently, a region dominated by the Soviets.

With his deep knowledge of European history, Alan Palmer is the ideal guide to the variety, intricacy and drama of Baltic history. The conflicts, customs and culture, as well as the personalities of this neglected region come to life in these pages. Any traveler to the Baltic will take this book and be both instructed and entertained by its broad, fast-flowing panorama. In the 21st Century, increasing attention has been focused on the Baltic States as they grow into their own in spite of growing neo-imperialist pressure from post-Soviet Russia, and Alan Palmer provides readers with a detailed history of the nations and peoples that are now poised to emerge as some of Europe’s most vital democracies.