Before I get into my review, can I tell you the most crazy thing I learned from this book? It's that Emile Zola was maybe murdered for his support of Dreyfus. I had no idea!! (I hope this doesn't qualify as a spoiler? Sorry!!!)
I read this for, and then thoroughly discussed it with, my reading-around-Proust book club, so I'm not inclined to say a whole lot about it now. Prior to starting Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters, my knowledge of the affair came primarily from reading Proust and Benjamin, and this book provided context that my other sources lacked. This was a thoroughly readable, just-in-depth-enough history of the events leading up to Dreyfus' arrest, his trials, the circumstances of his imprisonment, and his eventual exoneration.
On a side note: through much of the book, Begley draws parallels between the circumstances surrounding the Dreyfus affair and the 21st Century "war on terror," some of which seem a bit forced. Knowing what we do nearly 8 years later, I found it rather sad to read his preface, written on the eve of President Obama's inauguration, which focused on the prisoners at Guantanamo and the hope for them under the new administration.
