Three Jews, Alfred Dreyfus, Mendel Beilis, and Leo Frank, were charged with heinous crimes in the generation before World War I--Dreyfus of treason, Beilis of ritual murder, and Frank of murder in pursuit of perverse sexual desires. In reviewing the three affairs, this study explores the nature of modern anti-Semitism and the ways that politicians in the generation before World War I attempted to use hatred of Jews as a political device to mobilize the masses.

List of plates; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. The historical setting in Europe and America; 3. Earlier anti-Semitic affairs; 4. France before the Dreyfus Affair; 5. The Dreyfus Affair, more than a trial; 6. Beyond the Pale; Russia and the Jews, 1890-1914; 7. Blood libel; the Beilis Affair; 8. America, the 'exception'; 9. The Leo Frank Affair; Epilogue and conclusion; Bibliography; Index.