Antisemitic journalistic agitation alone did not spark Dreyfus mob violence

Evidence

Although antisemitism had undoubtedly gained ground during the three years following the arrest of Dreyfus, before the opening of Clemenceau’s campaign, and although the anti-Jewish press had attained a circulation comparable to that of the chief papers, the streets had remained quiet. It was only when Clemenceau began his articles in L’Aurore, when Zola published his J’Accuse, and when the Rennes tribunal set off the dismal succession of trials and retrials that the mob stirred into action. Every stroke of the Dreyfusards (who were known to be a small minority) was followed by a more or less violent disturbance on the streets. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 315

Categorization

• XREF: Connects forward to later Arendt arguments about propaganda and mob psychology; also parallels how media alone does not mobilize—echoes the dynamics described in later chapters on totalitarian propaganda.