Dreyfus affair

Cultural  

1. A scandal in France at the end of the nineteenth century involving a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was falsely convicted of betraying French military secrets and was sentenced to life imprisonment. French society was deeply divided over Dreyfus, with liberals, including Émile Zola and Georges Clemenceau, arguing that he was innocent, and conservatives defending the French military authorities. Dislike of Jews (see also Jews) also affected the opinions of many in France about the incident. Zola's article “J'accuse” (“I accuse”) strongly influenced the public in Dreyfus's favor. Dreyfus was eventually cleared of all charges, reinstated in the army with a promotion, and publicly honored.

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Example Sentences

The accusation, based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the German's wastepaper basket in Paris, kicked off what would become known as the "Dreyfus affair".

From Barron's

He’d always been stubborn—that was clear from the Dreyfus affair—but now he was becoming a caricature of himself.

From Literature

But the Dreyfus affair revealed a real danger hidden by the word science.

From Literature

James Patterson, a political science professor at Ave Maria University, has written about integralism's troubled lineage going back to pre-World War II European fascist or authoritarian movements, including the Spanish Falangists that supported dictator Francisco Franco or the antisemitic Action Française that grew out of France's Dreyfus Affair.

From Salon

Proust exerts his forensic powers on subjects as diverse as memory, class, homosexuality, antisemitism, psychology, botany, the transcendental potential of art and the tectonic sociopolitical shifts that took place in France during the Dreyfus affair and the Great War.

From Washington Post