Reviews of books : [the Dreyfus Affair]

Four books are reviewed : (1) "Why the Dreyfus Affair matters," by Louis Begley (Yale University Press, 2009); (2) "For the soul of France : culture wars in the age of Dreyfus," by Frederick Brown (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010); (3) "The man on Devil's Island : Alfred Dreyfus and the affair that divided France," by Ruth Harris (Allen Lane, 2010); and (4) "Les artistes et l'affair Dreyfus : 1898-1908," by Bertrand Tillier (Champ Vallon, 2009). Begley offers a brief account that considers how the values of the Affair are playing out today. Brown addresses French high culture across the later 19th century. Harris uses personal letters and archives to elicit the internal struggles of participants. Tillier covers visual artists and the Affair by exploring letters, diaries, archives, catalogs, reviews, and police reports.