Indeed, the most important book that a student of America can read right now to understand today’s malignant political climate is Ruth Harris’ admirable new look at the Dreyfus affair, The Man on Devil’s Island. Harris re-reads the famous trial to show how even the greatest of democracies can falter when good people abandon their principles, and when fear-mongering propaganda drives leaders to erode democratic checks and balances in the name of “national security.”