The Use of Abuse

In this book, which closely examines the techniques used by the polemists of the Dreyfus Affair, much is learned not only about the Mair itself, but also about the polemic of the age in which it was situated, and the interaction between writers and their public. The discourse within which people's thoughts were imprisoned is seen not merely to have reflected events, but to have created them, in an increasingly vicious circle whereby the language of popular abuse, incorporated into the writt...