The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque

Preface and Acknowledgments

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS From June to August, 1977,1 participated in a summer seminar of the National Endowment for the Humanities directed by Eugen Weberat the University ofCalifornia, LosAngeles. The seminar considered the interrelationships of high culture and popular cultures in nineteenthand twentieth-century Europe. I pursued in particular the interaction of national and local political cultures in rural France. The experience led me to question to what extent the practice of politics and the attitudes that derive from the combination of politics and social prejudice influence justice. This book grew out of that questioning. The project was made less difficult and more pleasant through the encouragement and suggestions of Lamar Cecil, Roy WatsonCurry, David H. Pinkney, VincentMilligan, and John Raymond Walser.Gérard Poisson and Jean-LouisGinhac, of the Archivesde laPrefecture de Police, Paris, and Ségolène de Dainville-Barbiche and GenevièveLe Moë1, of the Archives Nationales, were excellent guides to the treasures they administer. Generous grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation allowed me to spend precious months in France and underwrote the cost of preparing the final manuscript. I am grateful to the French Institute/Alliance Francaise of New York for permission to adapt and reprint material I first published in the magazine of the American Society of the French Legion of Honor: "The Steinheil Affair , 1908-1909," Laurels, L (Winter, 1979), 137-52, and "TheCaillaux Affair: Justiceas a PoliticalStatement,"Laurels, LII (Winter, 1981), 14362 ;and for the right to reproduce the illustrations from itsarchivesthat xii Preface and Acknowledgments accompany the text. Leslie E. Phillabaum, Beverly Jarrett, John Easterly , and the capable staff ofthe Louisiana State UniversityPress made the process of shepherding the manuscript through publication more enjoyable than tedious. My research assistants, Jane Catherine Overton , Carol Louise Bird, and Linda ElainePatterson, did much to maintain order in the project and compiled the index. My greatest debt is owed to my wife, Janis Kilduff Martin. This book is dedicated to her. The Hypocrisy ofJustice in the Belle Epoque This page intentionally left blank ...