ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the Dreyfus Affair has informed antiracism. The Dreyfus Affair showed the connections between the debates about national identity, the state and institutions such as the army, the education system, and the church. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the tone of the centenary commemorations, and then looks at an antiracist interpretation. In order to understand what was at stake in the Dreyfus Affair, it is important to consider it in its context and avoid anachronisms. Intervening events, particularly the holocaust, tend to distort perceptions of the Dreyfus Affair. In the late nineteenth century, anti-semitism permeated French society. The established French Jewish community had a similar reaction to the arrest and trial of Dreyfus as the majority public opinion. French Jews believed that anti-semitism would eventually disappear as a result of their assimilation. In fact, the mobilisation of intellectuals as a group during the Dreyfus Affair marked a significant departure from Benda's ideal-type.
