What’s in a name? For illustrious Quebeckers of the late nineteenth century, we might think that it was destiny. Honoré Mercier, Faucher de Saint-Maurice, and Prosper Bender, all born in the 1840s, each had a name to match his personality and preeminence. So it was with Honoré Beaugrand, who survives in Quebec’s historical memory chiefly […]
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New Year Preview
This year will start with back-to-back posts on Honoré Beaugrand’s Jeanne la Fileuse, the classic Quebec novel on late nineteenth-century emigration. Although a fairly conventional love story drives the plot, Beaugrand did not hide his own politics. My blog posts will cover his treatise on emigration—and those he deemed responsible for the mass exodus. Moving […]
Continue readingBender’s French-Canadian Holidays
Frequent blog readers need no introduction to Prosper Bender, whom I first introduced here. Though a homeopathic physician (yes, quite likely a contradiction in terms) by trade, Bender was most famous in his day for writing on the culture and political affairs of French Canadians.[1] As a contributor to prominent U.S. magazines, he helped nineteenth-century […]
Continue readingEthnic Anxiety and the Race Problem
One of my most challenging moments as a teacher occurred ten years ago, when, as a fresh-faced teaching assistant at Brock University, I was leading a seminar on the Holocaust. Among my students was an Indigenous girl who eagerly raised her hand to make—quite tangentially—a comparison between Nazi-led ethnic cleansing and the historical experience of […]
Continue readingThe Franco-American Pantheon
Last week’s blog post quoted Grégoire Chabot on a hypothetical Franco-American “hall of fame.” Chabot seemed to find few worthy models. Yet, surely, if Francos are to recognize the accomplishments of their community, they ought to find important and influential figures in their past. What famous individuals has the community produced? Who are its leading […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1998)
In the Mainstream By 1998, Le Forum was a well-established centerpiece of Franco life. (For background, see last week’s post.) The Franco-American Centre in Orono had recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The paper was in the capable hands of Yvon Labbé and Lisa D. Michaud. ActFANE provided regional stories and special features regularly graced Forum […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1988)
Making Connections By the end of the 1980s, the Forum had broadened its horizons considerably by bringing in more voices and carrying items from other publications. (For background, see last week’s post.) It still included genealogical content and poetry—and in 1988 its pages captured new perspectives with short texts by Fort Kent high school students. […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1980)
Stand Up and Be Counted In the 1970s, the Franco-American world was turned upside down. As old institutions declined, new ones that were better suited to the times took their place.[1] This was still the era of the National Materials Development Center, which contributed significantly to the dissemination of Franco-American research and writing. Assumption College’s […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1975)
From Survivance to Fulfillment As promised last week, this post begins a month-long journey into the pages of Le Forum, a product of the FAROG and later the Franco-American Centre in Orono, Maine. Again, a word of caution is in order: this is only one of many sources for the period at hand. We cannot […]
Continue readingFranco-Americans Since 1945: An Overview
“With a little more education and a forty-hour week and some time on our hands—and we’ve become mobile—we looked around,” he said recently. The world of quiet beaches and summer cottages and golf courses no longer seemed so remote. “We see all these things and, we say, ‘Hey, we’d like to have an ice-cream cone, […]
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