It started with an inconsequential piece of military intelligence, scrawled on a piece of paper and left in a waste paper basket. But over the next decade, the infamous Dreyfus affair would mutate into a scandal that shook nineteenth-century France and stunned the world.

Ruth Harris is a Professor of History at the University of Oxford and author of 'The Man on Devil's Island'. She joins us to explain what a Jewish artillery officer's wrongful conviction tells us about the deep divisions within French society, and explains its long-lasting implications for modern nationalism and even the Zionist movement.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.

You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected].