Book 1, Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

"The Secrets of Panama" serves as a postscript to Book 1, revealing what comes out in the courtrooms and the in the wake of a massive corporate failure that affects some 800,000 French investors, who could ill afford any loss. The liquidator's order to halt work on the Isthmus provokes no demonstrations. Instead, shareholders politely petition for redress. Many hope the government will rescue them, while others want only to put it behind them. There would have been no scandal without Ydouard Drumont, a devout Roman Catholic lover of history, childless widower, variously employed until his La France Juive makes him famous in 1886. Drumont holds Jews responsible for disease, crime and economic woes. French Jews, notably the Rothschilds, are numerically few but conspicuous as financiers. When the Compagnie Universelle fails, Drumont looks for a connection. La Derniire Bataille, Drumont's self-styled "history...