Edouard Drumont as an écrivain de combat

The publication of La France juive in 1886 made its author Edouard-Alphonse Drumont, one of France's most celebrated écrivains de combat and its foremost popularizer of anti-Semitism. The newspaper, La Libre Parole, later founded by Drumont helped create the mood of opinion leading to the arrest of Captain Dreyfus in 1894. After Dreyfus's vindication Drumont lost much though not all of his influence. During the interwar years his message was kept alive by Bernanos, Céline, and certain French fascist circles. Under the German occupation Drumont was hailed as one of the inspirers of Vichy's "national revolution," particularly with regard to its policy of arresting and turning over French Jews to the Nazis. (FAB)