Public Trials Burke, Zola, Arendt, and the Politics of Lost Causes

Should we view moments of democratic failure as revealing the failure of democracy, or as revealing a contested, contingent failing that could have been otherwise? This is the question that Lida Maxwell examines via exploration of three writers' diagnoses of, and responses to, democratic failure in three sets of trial writings: Edmund Burke's writings on the Warren Hastings impeachment in late 18th century Britain, Emile Zola's writings on the Dreyfus Affair in late 19th century France, and Hannah Arendt's writings on the Eichmann trial in 1960s Israel.