It has become a rite of passage for any scholar of Franco-American history to address the report issued by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1881. The Bureau was one of many publicly-funded agencies created in the late nineteenth century to provide policymakers with information on industrialization, urban life, the workforce, and general economic […]
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History, 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 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 readingQuebec and Hinterland Canadians
In several weeks, I will have the privilege and pleasure of sharing my work on Franco-Americans at a colloquium on Quebec Studies at my dear alma mater, Bishop’s University. Below is a sneak peak, which may touch on themes familiar to friends and frequenters of this blog. Though Franco-Americans in the hinterland were typically not […]
Continue readingA Franco-American Rebuttal: The View from 1924
Charles Edmond Rouleau attributed a litany of moral failings to expatriated French Canadians—they were lazy but also greedy, improvident and very often intemperate, they betrayed their homeland and their faith. As the nineteenth century wore on, this type of rhetoric, tending to leave Franco-American communities to their own devices, became dominant among Quebec elites. I […]
Continue readingFrench Canada, Emigration, and Providence, 1880-1898
The fate of francophones outside of Quebec has recently attracted renewed public scrutiny. In September, New Brunswick’s People’s Alliance, a party hostile to official bilingualism, made a political breakthrough and secured a position of influence by supporting the Progressive Conservative government. The following month, columnist Denise Bombardier argued that the French language had largely disappeared […]
Continue readingResources: Scholarly Journal Articles on Franco-American History
Last week, on this blog, I listed ten major surveys and monographs on Franco-American history in hopes of providing a basis for preliminary research. Equally important are studies published in scholarly journals. I have selected the following ten partly because of their effect on the overall scholarly conversation, but also because they address topics sometimes […]
Continue readingResources: Monographs and Surveys of Franco-American History
With the publication of a series of “Image of America” tomes and David Vemette’s landmark work on Franco-American history, scholars and history enthusiasts alike have reason to be excited about the state of the field.[1] In hopes of helping researchers who are starting on the subject, I am offering here a beginner’s guide to secondary […]
Continue readingFranco-American Religious Controversies: The Corporation Sole
When the Irish men arrived they saw themselves displaced by the French who were occupying their usual pews. This situation did not endure for long, as the French worshippers, offering only minimal resistance, were forcibly dragged out into the aisles. – Philip T. Silvia, Jr., “The Spindle City: Labor, Politics, and Religion in Fall River, […]
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