This volume is a detailed history of the Dreyfus family and through them France's Jewish community, which spans six generations, from the French Revolution to World War II. At the centre of the book is the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s, one of the most chilling examples of persecution, and one of the most complex and controversial political and cultural events of the 20th century - a case which split the French nation and revealed the true extent of 19th-century anti-Semitism.