Le monument Henry : la structure de l'antisémitisme en France, 1898-1899

Résumé En

The Henry Subscription provides a rare insight into the structure and function of antisemitism at the popular level, in France in the 1890's and generally. The paper first analyses the geographical distribution of subscribers, finding that their incidence was high in the East and the South-East in particular, for very different reasons, and that they came predominantly from cities and small towns. The break-down of subscribers by profession, which follows, indicates a high incidence among the military and the Catholic clergy, but also among workers and artisans, students and the liberal professions. Surprisingly, incidence was low among white-collar workers, and average among small traders. Finally, analysis of the messages accompanying subscriptions suggests that antisemitism had a powerful explanatory as well as compensatory function in circumstances of rapid social change. In the face of change it affirmed a set of absolute values in opposition to the Jew, who was characterised very particularly asa polluting agent. As such he had to be eliminated from the city, though such elimination was envisaged in symbolic and not actual terms