Book Review Bill Schubart. The Lamoille Stories: Uncle Benoit’s Wake and Other Tales from Vermont. Hinesburg: Magic Hill Press, 2013 [2008]. Yet, the rural Franco-Vermonters have a sense of their identity as French people, both those who live on family-owned farms, and those who live in mini-mill towns like Beecher Falls. The French-Vermonter’s identity is […]
Continue readingCategory: Heritage and Memory
The Clever Woman: A French-Canadian Folk Tale
In the literary ferment of the late nineteenth century, Quebec authors sought to craft a new national identity that could be read back in time. Quite consciously, such authors as Louis Fréchette and Honoré Beaugrand jotted down and published old oral traditions that were at risk of being forever lost. (It seems they may also […]
Continue readingQTP at 150: Back to Ding-a-Long Street
The several million Americans of French or French-Canadian origin, who are among the oldest Americans of European stock, are for the most part human vestiges of the vast continental French empire in North America. With these words, quoted from historian Mason Wade’s work, Query the Past launched into the story of the transnational French-Canadian community. […]
Continue readingVisions of Kerouac
This is no ordinary mois de la francophonie. This month marks the centennial of Jack Kerouac’s birth. The anniversary provides the opportunity to assess the legacy of the celebrated author and Franco-American icon—a legacy that should be explored in its full complexity, from Kerouac’s personal weaknesses to his pioneering work. We should hope that renewed […]
Continue readingA Bash for Quebec
For more on Franco-American history, please check out the following links: Franco-American political history from our friends at the French-Canadian Legacy Podcast; A history of religious and public education in the St. John River valley on the Acadian Archives blog; An essay on the “prehistory” of the great migration from the St. Lawrence River valley […]
Continue readingCatching Up with the Remembrance of the Past
The supreme irony of history is that it easily becomes all things to all people—yet, it is systematically undervalued within our education system and in our way of thinking about ourselves. Our dismissive attitude towards the past is both a symptom and a cause of our collective ailments. In prior writing, I have underscored the […]
Continue readingWinter Customs from Louis Fréchette
In prior years, this blog has looked at customs surrounding nineteenth-century holidays and shared a unique, French-Canadian take on A Christmas Carol. Following Prosper Bender and Honoré Beaugrand, our guide this year is again a prominent French-Canadian writer—one roughly of the same generation. In Christmas in French Canada, Louis Fréchette penned short stories in English—without […]
Continue readingA French-Canadian Christmas Carol
Honoré Beaugrand was a prominent supporter of the Liberal cause in Canada. He left his mark on the Quebec press as the founder and proprietor of La Patrie. He faced down rioting anti-vaxxers as mayor of Montreal in 1885. At last, in Franco-American circles, Beaugrand is best known as the author of Jeanne la Fileuse, […]
Continue readingBlog Update and Franco News
Regular readers may recall from the blog schedule that I posted earlier this fall that today’s post was supposed to address the challenge of teaching Canada-U.S. relations. My take on the subject appeared earlier than planned. The kind folks at ActiveHistory.ca—special thanks to Professor Daniel Ross of UQAM—shared my article on the subject on Tuesday. […]
Continue readingThe Monuments Debate: One Historian’s Take
In my many road trips across New England and Upstate New York—sometimes for pleasure, sometimes for on-the-ground historical research, generally for both—I somehow got into the habit of photographing Civil War monuments wherever I found them. Those monuments, so often overlooked, become ubiquitous once they are on your radar. They are overlooked notably because there […]
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