Façon d’être pamphlétaire à la fin du xixe siècle en France : le cas Édouard Drumont

Abstract

The author of numerous, bestselling anti-Semitic writings in the late 19th century, Édouard Drumont (1844-1917) was not afraid to present himself as an historian, or as a sociologist, at a time where the borders of this emerging science were not well defined. In order to legitimize his participation in public debate, he relied on a semi-scientific vocabulary and claimed to be following in the footsteps of recognized academics. The relatively strong echo enjoyed by Drumont’s writings certainly had to do with the fact that his Judeophobic message was framed as a scientific rhetoric. Nonetheless, this scientific posture appeared to be ambiguous, since Drumont acknowledged that he was departing from “official science”, which he deemed falsified. Thus, despite his attempts to discard the label of pamphlet-writer that was assigned to him, he was still defined as such by a majority of his contemporaries.