In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, France was shaken by a crisis that shook their entire

society. An army officer was wrongly convicted in a sham trial. Then over the next several years,

the French military doubled down, refusing to acknowledge what they had done, and even punished

everyone who attempted to prove them wrong, and went so far as to let the guilty party go free.

The longstanding result of this controversy changed France in ways that can still be felt today.

Learn more about the Dreyfus affair, why it happened, and how it affected French society

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Music on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The Dreyfus Affair is one of the most significant political and social crises in French history.

It's little known today, almost 130 years after the events, especially if you don't live in France.

However, at the time, especially in France, it was the political story of the era.

And it wasn't just a big news story.

It completely divided French society and left a legacy that permanently changed French culture. On the eve of the Dreyfus

affair in the early 1890s, France was a deeply divided and unsettled nation, marked by

political instability, social fragmentation, and ideological conflict.

The Third Republic, which was established in 1870 following the collapse of the Second Empire

during the Franco-Prussian War, had endured over two decades, but remained fragile and contested.

Over the last century, France had whipsaw it between Republic to Monarchy to Republic to

and back to Republic. Many monarchists, Bonapartists, and conservative Catholics still viewed

the Republic as illegitimate or temporary, hoping for a return to traditional rule. Meanwhile,

Republicans and secularists were struggling to define the nation

along democratic, rational, and civic lines, often in opposition to the influence of the Catholic

Church and the old aristocracy. The trauma of the Franco-Prussian war and the humiliating

...