Disunity and Discontent See Part I here. “I am full of grief,” Jacques Rouse declared, “that so few Frenchmen as we are here, we cannot live in concord together.” How often have we heard this story of the factious (or fractious) French Canadians? How often have we experienced it? French Canadians in Quebec failed to […]
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Franco Pioneer Russell Niquette
Earlier this year, I shared via Twitter my research on Russell Niquette, the first Franco-American to offer a serious challenge for the office of governor in Vermont. I happily share my tweets below. The other article to which I refer concerns the contemporary history of the New Hampshire presidential primary, in which Franco-Americans played an […]
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 readingThose Other Franco-Americans: Barre, Vermont
Barre, Vermont, has several claims to fame, most recently as the home of the nation’s fastest governor. It is also where the late Franco-American folklorist Martha Pellerin grew up. In fact, Pellerin’s life and work help to shed light on Barre’s Franco-American past, which is inextricably tied to the area’s most important export—world-famous Barre granite. […]
Continue readingAcknowledging Franco-American Success
For generations, it was common to hear the most fatalistic in Quebec claim, “on est né pour un p’tit pain.” In other words, French Canadians were to settle for a simple life—without wealth or status—built around moral virtues. As in most things in Quebec, it is possible to read the influence of British conquest and […]
Continue readingHistory, Heritage, and Survival: Rassemblement 2019, Part II
Please visit this earlier post for an introduction to the Franco-American Centre’s annual Rassemblement. As the Rassemblement moved past academic history—and well past the First World War—on April 26 and 27, we had the opportunity to ponder the theme of this edition. Artist and performer Abby Paige had proposed the “Ship of Culture” as a […]
Continue readingHistory, Heritage, and Survival: Rassemblement 2019, Part I
What do you call a gathering of Franco-Americans and friends of Franco-Americans? If you are in central Maine, it’s a Rassemblement, and you are sure to see it happen every spring. The latest installment of the Rassemblement, an annual tradition for the Franco-American Centre at the University of Maine, was a tremendously thought-provoking and inspiring […]
Continue readingWhy Franco-American History?
Good luck finding a French Canadian who has no personal connection to the grande saignée, the wave of emigration that afflicted Canada from 1840 to the Great Depression. I, for one, could mention my own great-, great-, great-, great-grandparents, Joseph and Dorothée Royer, who spent several years in the United States around 1830. Wave after […]
Continue readingLa Journée de la Francophonie in Exeter, N.H.
Yesterday, in celebration of Francophonie Day at Phillips Exeter Academy, I was invited to deliver the event’s keynote address. I gladly share my prepared remarks here. Thank you, all, for your presence here. I salute your interest in this language that bring us together—not merely today, I hope, but throughout the year. Thank you especially […]
Continue readingReflections on the Franco “Acade-munity”
In a recent discussion of the Progressive Era, one of my students noted that scientists are ideally dedicated to the pursuit of a whole, unvarnished, and uncompromised truth, whereas activists are interested only in the truths that serve their cause. That may well be a fair portrayal of the social scientists and reformers of the […]
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