I would only add that the Dreyfus affair exposed a very ugly strain of thought on the right, and that being exposed as anti-Semitic merely led the rightists to openly embrace their anti-Semitism. And that's why it got worse.
On the other, hand it did have a galvanizing effect on the left, and Clemenceau and the radicals eventually prevailed. I would say that the overall effect was to benefit the left politically, but that it pushed the right in a very nasty direction, not just in France but all over continental Europe.
On the other, hand it did have a galvanizing effect on the left, and Clemenceau and the radicals eventually prevailed. I would say that the overall effect was to benefit the left politically, but that it pushed the right in a very nasty direction, not just in France but all over continental Europe.