Patrick Lacroix, Ph.D., is a former Fulbright fellow and a former (he might say recovering) history instructor. He taught at postsecondary institutions in Ontario, New Hampshire, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. A scholar of U.S. religious history, Dr. Lacroix has explored faith-based activism and its role in twentieth-century political realignments. His first monograph, John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith (University Press of Kansas, 2021), finds in the early 1960s a rapid shift in religious discourse that produced a new political and ideological landscape. Dr. Lacroix has brought historical perspective to the current state of religious activism in a number of outlets, including the History News Network, the Washington Post, and the Concord Monitor.
Dr. Lacroix is also a leading scholar of Franco-American history. He has authored twenty peer-reviewed research articles as well as “Tout nous serait possible”: Une histoire politique des Franco-Américains, 1874-1945 (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2021). This monograph challenges inherited ideas about Franco-Americans’ supposed political apathy and political exclusion. Over the course of generations, “Francos” were able to reach positions of public influence without sacrificing their ancestral culture.
A native of Quebec, Dr. Lacroix studies points of intersection in Canadian and American “national” histories by studying migration and other encounters across the international border. He currently serves as director of the Acadian Archives in Fort Kent, Maine.
Dr. Lacroix is available for interviews and public lectures on any aspect of his research and writing. Please use the contact page for any comment or inquiry.
FULL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Last updated December 2022
Books
John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith, 1960-1963. University Press of Kansas, Studies in US Religion, Politics, and Law, 2021.
“Tout nous serait possible”: Une histoire politique des Franco-Américains, 1874-1945. Presses de l’Université Laval, 2021.
Peer-Reviewed and Encyclopedic Articles and Chapters
“La fin de l’autodétermination? Retour sur le cheminement politique canadien-français aux États-Unis,” submitted for Les communautés francophones d’Amérique du Nord et le politique (CEFAN).
“Emigration and the Limits of Public Policy in Quebec and Nova Scotia, 1867-1900,” Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society. Refereed and approved for publication.
“Prelude to the ‘Great Hemorrhage’: French Canadians in the United States, 1775-1840.” American Review of Canadian Studies 51, no. 4 (December 2021), 554-572.
“Disrupting the Forty-Fifth Parallel: An Invitation to Quebec Scholars.” Journal of Eastern Townships Studies 49 (2021), 13-25.
“Election of 1960,” in American Religious History: Belief and Society through Time, Volume 3: World War II to the Present, ed. by Gary Scott Smith (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2021), 150-152.
“Canadian-Born Soldiers in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848): An Opportunity for Migration Studies.” International Journal of Canadian Studies 57 (2020), 27-46.
“An All-American Town? Ethnicity and Memory in the Barre Granite Strike of 1922.” Vermont History 88, no. 1 (winter/spring 2020), 35-56.
“Canadian–U.S. Border,” in Race and Ethnicity in America: From Pre-Contact to the Present, Volume 4: Post-Civil Rights to the Present, ed. by Russell M. Lawson and Benjamin A. Lawson (Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2019), 44-47.
“Promises to Keep: French Canadians as Revolutionaries and Refugees, 1775-1800.” Journal of Early American History 9, no. 1 (2019), 59-82.
“Parish and Nation: French Canada, Quebec, and Providential Destiny, 1880-1898.” The Historian 80, no. 4 (winter 2018), 725-748.
“A l’assaut de la corporation sole: Autonomie institutionnelle et financière chez les Franco-Américains du Maine, 1900-1917.” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 72, no. 1 (summer 2018), 31-51.
“Le cas particulier de la famille Mignault: Prospection d’une histoire transnationale.” Quebec Studies 65 (June 2018), 37-55.
“Seeking an ‘Entente Cordiale’: Prosper Bender, French Canada, and Intercultural Brokership in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Canadian Studies 52, no. 2 (spring 2018), 381-403.
“Finding Thoreau in French Canada: The Ideological Legacy of the American Revolution.” American Review of Canadian Studies 47, no. 3 (September 2017), 266-279.
“Americanization by Catholic Means: French Canadian Nationalism and Transnationalism, 1889-1901.” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 16, no. 3 (July 2017), 284-301.
“A Church of Two Steeples: Catholicism, Labor, and Ethnicity in Industrial New England, 1869-90.” Catholic Historical Review 102, no. 4 (autumn 2016), 746-770.
“Choosing Peace and Order: National Security and Sovereignty in a North American Borderland, 1837-1842.” The International History Review 38, no. 5 (2016), 943-960.
“From Strangers to ‘Humanity First’: Canadian Social Democracy and Immigration Policy, 1932-1961.” Canadian Journal of History 51, no. 1 (spring/summer 2016), 58-82.
“‘Popery and Tyranny’: King George III as a Late Stuart,” Historical Papers, Canadian Society of Church History (2015), 27-45.
“Immigration, Minority Rights, and Catholic Policy-Making in Post-War Canada.” Histoire sociale/Social History 47, no. 93 (May 2014), 183-203.
Book Reviews
“Se donner à l’étranger,” review of Pierre LAVOIE, Mille après mille: Célébrité et migrations dans le Nord-Est américain (2022), in Cahiers de lecture de l’Action nationale, 17, no. 1 (fall 2022), 19.
HERRMANN, Rachel, No Useless Mouth: Waging War and Fighting Hunger in the American Revolution (2019), on H-War, February 6, 2020.
LAMONDE, Yvan, Emerson, Thoreau et Brownson au Québec: Éléments pour une comparaison des milieux intellectuels en Nouvelle-Angleterre et au Bas-Canada (1830-1860) (2018), in Quebec Studies 68 (December 2019), 166-168.
VERMETTE, David, A Distinct Alien Race : The Untold Story of Franco-Americans (2018), in the Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 73, no. 1-2 (summer/fall 2019), 232-234.
FORCESE, Craig, Destroying the Caroline: The Frontier Raid That Reshaped the Right to War (2018), in the American Review of Canadian Studies 48, no. 4 (winter 2018), 436-437.
“Autonomisation des francophonies minoritaires canadiennes, 1950-1950,” review essay of Denis BOURQUE, and Chantal RICHARD, Les conventions nationales acadiennes 1900-1908 (2018), and Laurent POLIQUIN, De l’impuissance à l’autonomie: Evolution culturelle et enjeux identitaires des minorités canadiennes-françaises (2017), in Histoire sociale/Social History 51, no. 104 (November 2018), 408-413.
ROBILLARD, Denise, Monseigneur Joseph Charbonneau: Bouc émissaire d’une lutte de pouvoir (2013), in Cahiers d’histoire 34, no. 2 (summer 2017), 197-200.
MONIZ, Amanda B., From Empire to Humanity: The American Revolution and the Origins of Humanitarianism (2016), in the Human Rights Review 18, no. 3 (September 2017), 363-365.
ABBOTT, Frank A., The Body or the Soul? Religion and Culture in a Quebec Parish, 1736-1901 (2016), in the American Review of Canadian Studies 47, no. 2 (summer 2017), 235-236.
PAQUET, Martin, et al., editors. Le Saint-Siège, le Québec et l’Amérique française: Les archives vaticanes, pistes et défis (2013), in Cahiers d’histoire 33, no. 2 (fall 2016), 221-224.
BOUCHARD, Gérard, Interculturalism: A View from Quebec (2015) in the American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (summer 2016), 291-293.
RICHARD, Mark Paul, Not a Catholic Nation: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts New England in the 1920s (2015) on H-AmRel (History of American Religion Online), March 28, 2016.
GAGNON, Alain-G., Minority Nations in the Age of Uncertainty: New Paths to National Emancipation and Empowerment (2014) in the American Review of Canadian Studies 45, no. 3 (fall 2015), 379-381.
CLICHE, Marie-Aimée, Abuse or Punishment? Violence toward Children in Quebec Families 1850-1969 (2014) in Etudes d’histoire religieuse 81, no. 1-2 (2015), 177-179.
HASELBY, Sam, The Origins of American Religious Nationalism (2015) on H-AmRel, August 31, 2015.
CLARKE, Thurston, JFK’s Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President (2013) in Historical Journal of Massachusetts 43, no. 2 (summer 2015), 149-152.
Other Publications
“The Nuclear Threat: Then and Now,” Lewiston Sun Journal (November 6, 2022).
“Archives acadiennes (Université du Maine à Fort Kent),” institution report, Rabaska: Revue d’ethnologie de l’Amérique française 20 (2022), 376-377.
“French Heritage in Maine Marks a Historic Anniversary,” Bangor Daily News (July 1, 2022).
“The Lost Wor(l)ds of Franco-America,” Le Forum 44, no. 2 (summer 2022), 8-10.
“Canada to California: Defying Distance in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Le Forum 43, no. 4 (winter 2021-2022), 11-15.
“Silent But Visible? French Canadians on Stage and Screen,” Le Forum 43, no. 3 (fall 2021), 26-29.
“Retour sur l’épopée franco-américaine,” Le Devoir (November 8, 2021).
“The Political World of Franco-Americans,” Le Forum 43, no. 2 (summer 2021), 29-31.
“Those Other Franco-Americans: St. Albans, Part II” and “Hauntingly Silent: Some Questions Concerning Maine’s English Education Bill,” Le Forum 43, no. 1 (spring 2021), 22-27.
“Débats du Parlement du Québec sur l’émigration aux États-Unis et le rapatriement 1867-1880” and “Débats de la Législature du Québec sur l’émigration aux États-Unis et le rapatriement 1881-1900.” Edited collection. Self-published, 2021. Available on Archive.org and Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Dépôt des publications numériques).
“Those Other Franco-Americans: St. Albans, Part I,” Le Forum 42, no. 4 (winter 2020-2021), 23-24.
“‘This province is your country’: Understanding the Acadian Deportation,” Le Forum 42, no. 4 (winter 2020-2021), 25-27.
“Survivance and Its Discontents,” Le Forum 42, no. 3 (fall 2020), 24-25.
“Why I Tell the Franco-American Story,” Le Forum 42, no. 2 (summer 2020), 28-29. First published on the blog of the French-Canadian Legacy Podcast.
Franco-American Bibliography: An Addendum. Self-published, 2020. Available on Archive.org.
“Two Days in March: Historical Anniversaries” and “Women’s History Month: The Franco-American Press,” Le Forum 42, no. 1 (spring 2020), 21-23.
“Finding Francos in Le Forum (1975),” Le Forum 41, no. 4 (winter 2019-2020), 27-28.
“What Maine Has Meant to Franco-Americans,” Lewiston Sun Journal (December 1, 2019).
“History, Heritage, and Survival: Rassemblement 2019,” Le Forum 41, no. 2 (summer 2019), 15-18.
“Restoring Barre’s Place,” Times Argus (Barre-Montpelier) (May 28, 2019), A4.
“A Revived Religious Left? Don’t Hold Your Breath,” Concord Monitor (April 18, 2019), B1, B2.
“Au revoir, Jerry,” Le Forum 40, no. 1 (spring 2018), 19-20.
“The Canada–U.S. Relationship in the Time of ‘America First,’” SSN Key Findings, Scholars Strategy Network (May 2018).
Bibliography of Franco-American Life, Language, and History in the Northeastern United States. Available on Archive.org. Printed and disseminated by the Franco-American Centre, University of Maine, 2018.
“A Perspective on President Trump’s Attempt to Channel American Religious Activism,” SSN Key Findings, Scholars Strategy Network (January 2018).
“Amid NAFTA Uncertainty, Canada Has Allies in New England,” Montreal Gazette (January 11, 2018), A6.
“Movie Review: The Home Road,” Le Forum 39, no. 4 (winter 2017-2018), 41.
“Québec 150 : Parlons-en!” Le Droit (Ottawa) (December 2, 2017), 19.
“Finding a Larger Canvas: Franco-Americans’ Enduring Significance,” Le Forum 39, no. 3 (fall 2017), 3-5.
“1842 Anglo-American Treaty Deserves Its Due,” Montreal Gazette (August 9, 2017), A6. Online as “Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 helped make Canada possible.”
“Prosper Bender (1844-1917): Canadian Littérateur, Expatriate, and Intercultural Broker,” Le Forum 39, no. 1 (spring 2017), 24, 30.
The History Program at Bishop’s University: Origins, Evolution, Leading Figures, and Curriculum. Commemorative booklet. Self-published, 2012. Available on Archive.org.
Online Content
“Inviter pour intégrer : l’implication politique des groupes minoritaires en Franco-Amérique,” HistoireEngagée, September 29, 2022.
“What safeguards for rights and freedoms?” for “Forum: The End of Roe,” Current, June 30, 2022.
“The Acadian Landing Monument at 100,” Acadian Archives blog, UMFK, June 15, 2022.
“Honoring Vermont’s French-Canadian history,” VTDigger, February 10, 2022.
“Discover Our Collections: The Unique Story of Public Education in Northern Maine,” Acadian Archives blog, UMFK, January 13, 2022.
“Saving the Spirit of the Nation,” Current, August 30, 2021.
“American Temptations,” Current, April 28, 2021.
“Opportunities for a Catholic President, Then and Now,” History News Network [HNN], February 14, 2021.
“The Second Catholic President: Prelude and Prospects,” University Press of Kansas Blog, January 26, 2021.
“Teaching Canada–U.S. Relations in 2020,” ActiveHistory.ca, November 3, 2020.
“From British America to Buena Vista: Canadians in the Mexican War,” UTP Journals Blog, September 21, 2020.
“Science, opinion publique et résistance : de la variole à COVID-19,” HistoireEngagée, April 2, 2020.
“On Its 50th Anniversary, the Francophonie Can Find New Purpose Despite Mixed Legacy,” The Conversation (March 22, 2020). Online. Translated and posted as “La Francophonie a 50 ans : L’héritage mitigé de l’organisation internationale” by La Conversation (March 30, 2020).
“The End of Canadian Imagination,” Canadian Dimension, January 8, 2020.
“How Estes and Ike Transformed the New Hampshire Primary – And How JFK Defined It,” HNN, June 23, 2019.
“Race, Privilege, and the Problem of Subaltern Franco-American,” SHGAPE [Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era] Blog, January 29, 2019.
“What Teaching the Classics Taught Me,” HNN, December 9, 2018.
“Writing Transnational and Cross-Cultural Lives,” UTP Journals Blog, November 12, 2018.
“Dystopia? It’s a World Without History,” ActiveHistory.ca, April 6, 2018. Translated and posted as “Visions dystopiques d’un monde sans histoire” by HistoireEngagée, April 26, 2018.
“Martin Luther King’s Activism Points to a Way Forward for the Left – But Not How We Might Imagine,” Made by History, Washington Post (January 15, 2018). Online.
“500 Years Ago Christianity Changed – It Changed Again in the 1960s,” HNN, October 28, 2017. Carried as “Martin Luther Changed Christianity 500 Years Ago – It Changed Again in the 1960s” by Time.com, October 30, 2017.
“Why Was the Quebec Flag Flown at the Statehouse in Connecticut?” HNN, August 13, 2017.
“Histoire des Franco-Américains : nouvelle utilité, nouvelle efflorescence?” HistoireEngagée, August 3, 2017.
“Diverse North Country: Canadians of Clinton County,” Adirondack Almanack, April 24, 2017.
“Refugee Soldiers, American Patriots: Canadians in the Quest for Independence,” IEHS Online: Website of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, April 16, 2017.
“JFK at 100,” HNN, March 12, 2017.
“Henry David Thoreau, French Canada, and l’Américanité,” Beyond Borders: The New Canadian History, March 6, 2017.
“Ce que les années 1850 peuvent nous enseigner,” HistoireEngagée, December 5, 2016.
“The Making of a Presidential Soul,” Process: Blog of the OAH, October 20, 2016.
“Good Fences, Good Neighbours? Building Peaceful Relations Amidst Political Unrest in the Canada–US Borderland,” Borealia: Early Canadian History, October 4, 2016.
“Paradoxes, Politics, and Calculated Silence,” UTP Journals Blog, July 22, 2016.
“The Transplantation of French Canada: A Challenge to Immigration History,” IEHS Online, January 25, 2016.
“The Quebec Invasion as Religious Encounter,” Borealia, November 16, 2015. “Crossing Borders: Restructuring North American Narratives,” Borealia, September 8, 2015.