Browse Items (152 total)
-
I took my dead father to a Red Sox game
Short fiction piece by Waterville, Maine writer, Ron Currie, Jr., about a trip to Fenway Park with his dead father. Published in the online magazine, "Salon," with reference to the author's recent novel, "Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles" (Viking, 2013). -
Heritage Lost and Refound : Franco-Americans in Vermont
Feature article on French Canadian and Franco American heritage in Vermont. Early 20th-century discrimination and violence against French Catholics in Vermont. Characterizations of Franco American community life among other Vermont ethnic groups; testimonies of French language loss; recent attempts to revive cultural traditions in daily life. The ways in which certain interviewees find value in their cultural heritage. Includes brief interviews and personal profiles of Vermont journalist, Tena Starr; Roman Catholic Brother Adrian Bouchard; Burlington mayor, Peter Alfred Clavelle; and musician, Martha Pellerin Drury. -
Justice and the memory of a song
Free-lance journalist's piece on overhearing her "first French joke" among students in a Maine high school. Her experience of the joke as an outsider, and her thoughts on French ethnic humor in Maine. Recalling this joke and its effects after being moved and empowered by a performance by French-speaking Franco American musicians. -
Franco-Americans eye Quebec : 'We don't need another Cuba up there'
Article on Maine Franco Americans' opposing positions relative to Québec separatism in the 1970s. Comments from state legislators, loggers, and university professionals from across the state. Thoughts on the possible positive and negative impacts of Québec's potential independence on Canada and on Franco Americans in Maine. -
Freeing the silenced tongue : Mainers with French-Canadian roots try to revive their banished patois
Brief profile of a Waterville, Maine, group of adults intent on reclaiming the French language that permeated their earlier lives but that - for reasons personal, political, and otherwise historical - was replaced or repressed by communication in English. Includes testimonies of the circumstances surrounding language loss from others in northern Maine's St. John River Valley, as well as from a Maine documentary filmmaker. -
Franco-Americans gather for forum : French-speaking participants recall how their language drew ridicule
Article on a French-language forum about cultural heritage and viability in the St. John River Valley, northern Maine. The talk, sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council, was led by advocates for the Acadian and Quebecois heritages prevalent in Frenchville, Fort Kent, Grand Isle, and many other communities throughout northern Aroostook County and the state of Maine. -
Proudly French : Attack on Snowe maligns many Mainers
Article subtitled, "Does the United States now need a Franco-American Anti-Defamation League?" Editorial reaction to the recent uses of France and the French ethnicity in American politics as a derogatory stand-in for anti-nationalism. The author's personal reflection on his own Frenchness, and his anger at a "politics of intimidation" enacted through the misuse of cultural terms. Reflects emotions arisen after France's refusal to support US military action in Iraq. Discusses the newly coined term, "Franco-Republican." Reprinted from The Washington Post. -
For Franco-Americans, it's now or never
Subtitled, "French in New England fear their language and culture risk being lost forever unless something is done soon." An article presenting the Franco Americans in Vermont as a people at risk of cultural and linguistic assimilation. Focuses on the worries of a generation of native French speakers and direct descendents of French Canadian American immigrants over threats to their linguistic relevance, unwelcome challenges posed to the cultural currency they pass on to their own descendents, and the historical context that orientates their concerns. Includes commentary from many Vermonters, and relates their difference of opinion as to the role the French language should play in the lives of Franco Americans. Thoughts on the relevance of these concerns to the current (1980s) political movements in Quebec. -
Maine's Franco-Americans take in stride the discrimination that permeates their lives
Reprinted segment of Los Angeles Times feature article ("French in Maine Bear Bias Quietly") attempting to characterize the historical plight of the Franco American people of the state of Maine. Contains brief quotes from social leaders and commentators in Bangor, Lewiston, Van Buren, and Orono. -
'Try to Blend In:' French in Maine Bear Bias Quietly
Feature article attempting to characterize the historical plight of the Franco American people of the state of Maine. Contains brief quotes from social leaders and commentators in Bangor, Lewiston, Van Buren, and Orono. Abridged version of the article reprinted later in the Providence Journal-Bulletin ("Maine's Franco-Americans take in stride the discrimination that permeates their lives"). -
Franco-American loses lawsuit
Subtitled, "Judge says TDC didn't discriminate." Article relating the results of a U.S. District Court case in which a Franco American man filed suit against his former Bangor, Maine employer for unlawful hiring practices and discrimination based on ethnicity. According to the journalist, "the case...is the first discrimination case involving a Franco-American to go to trial in Maine." -
On the ethnics of newspapers
Editorial piece on the derogatory ethnocentricity of certain recent (winter, 1992-1993) newspaper publications and radio broadcasts in central Maine, and a reflection on one Waterville, Maine, mother's reaction to them in specific. -
Sentinel editorial writer inept in treatment of ethnic slurs
Letter to the editor berating Waterville, Maine's Morning Sentinel editorial staff for failing to criticize a Portland-based radio station (WBLM) that frequently included in its morning show a segment poking fun at a Franco American character. Cites an article in which the editorial staff "trivialize[d]" complaints against the radio program's arguable ethnic discrimination, and chastises the newspaper for missing an opportunity to heighten local conversation about ethnic humor and cultural stereotypes. -
'Frenchie' feature receives complaints
Article on certain reactions to Portland, Maine, radio station, WBLM's morning broadcast featuring humor based on "a slow-witted Franco-American" character. Differing public attitudes toward the station's program, including complaints issued by the Maine Human Rights Commission, defenses of the program offered by the station's management, and the varying opinions of some local radio listeners. -
Sanford's son
Feature article on Sanford native, Ray Luc Levasseur, and his return to southern Maine following decades spent imprisoned for convictions associated with political activism. Some historical background about Levasseur, his hometown, and the reputation he acquired in Sanford as a "wanted" man in the 1970s and 80s. Segments of an interview with the man returned - reflections on his past, orientations toward the future. The writer of this article, the interviewer, is also a native of Sanford. -
Paroled radical glad to be back in Maine
Article on the return to southern Maine of Sanford native, Ray Luc Levasseur, after decades of imprisonment in federal penitentiary for convictions associated with his political activism. Includes a timeline from 1977 to 2004 of some of the major public events in Levasseur's life, as well as some bombings linked to activist groups in that time period. Republished in the New York Times Sunday Edition (8 August 2004). -
Kerouac in Black and White
An essay in exploration of Jack Kerouac's French-Canadianness in twentieth-century America. How digging into this particular ethnicity, time, and place shapes how one considers Kerouac's late-life ideas about race, his relationship with religion, or the stylings of his writing. Blaise considers Kerouac alongside other fiction writers (William Faulkner, Theodore Dreiser, William Saroyan, Thomas Wolfe) that, to Blaise, have engaged their fiction in similar conversations with both sentimentality and American diversity. From the author of "I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography" and "Lunar Attractions." Also published in "Selected Essays" by Clark Blaise (Emeryville, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2008). -
French-Canadian Protestants. Anxious to Move to South Carolina to Escape Alleged Persecution
1893 article on the letter of a Fall River, Massachusetts, French-Canadian Congregationalist minister to the governor of South Carolina, requesting information on how he and his protestant community might relocate to South Carolina and escape the persecution of his community by Roman Catholics in Massachusetts. -
Purity of Sidewalks: New England Cities Offer Rewards for Conviction of Spitters
Brief letter to the editor acknowledging the local governments of Fall River, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, forbidding the act of spitting on the sidewalk. Author suggests the positive effect of the law in these cities is perhaps due to their "foreign element." -
A date which will live in infamy, Augusta man was survivor: Poulin 'never saw so many planes'
On the fiftieth year following the 1941 Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Lucien Poulin of Augusta, Maine, tells of his experience of the surprise bombing and his subsequent involvement in World War II. -
McAuley recalls the past: AARP's minority affairs person reflects on racism he saw in Augusta
John McAuley recalls his experience of racism while growing up in Augusta, Maine, in the 1930s. -
Ex-head of La Kermesse festival sentenced for theft
Priscille Gagnon, for head of La Kermesse Franco American festival in Biddeford, Maine, is sentenced to three months in prison after being convicted of embezzling nearly $80,000 in festival funds to pay for her husband's hospital bills. -
Convicted terrorist Raymond Luc Levasseur denied permission by parole commission to travel to Amherst
Article on Ray Luc Levasseur's suspended invitation to speak at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2009. Levasseur, a Maine resident, is serving a paroled sentence in that state for his alleged involvement in politically-motivated crimes in the 1970s and 80s. The talk at UMass, scheduled to continue without his participation, was on the topic of the 1989 sedition trial in which he was acquitted. -
DAVID B. OFFER: Bigot with spray paint leaves scar on our political process
Article on the derogatory vandalism of a political sign for Augusta, Maine, State Senate candidate, Roger Katz, that sat in Augusta's Franco-American neighborhood. Offer points out the sadness of Katz, his reaction, and the immense negative reaction of the local community in Katz's support. -
Franco-American Writers
A WERU FM community radio broadcast of readings by two Maine writers, Rhea Côté Robbins and Trudy Chambers Price. Côté Robbins, who introduces her readings with a short talk on violence at home and in the workplace, shares from a work-in-progress entitled, "down the Plains." Chambers Price shares two chapters from her memoir, "The Cows Are Out!: Two Decades on a Maine Dairy Farm" (chapter 12, "A Real Farmer's Tan," and chapter 10, "The Cows Are Out!"). Readings are followed by a discussion with both writers about their lives, their work, and the stories that they and other Franco American women hold. -
No Praise, No Blame, Just So
Radio documentary piece on the violent invasion of the Waterville, Maine, convent of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament in 1996. The death of two nuns, the recollections of surviving sisters, and how their community has chosen to live and express its forgiveness for the man at fault. This recording is a student project of the SALT Institute in Portland, Maine. Aired by National Public Radio on November 17, 2008, and now available at npr.org. -
My Brother the Murderer
Online feature entitled "What happens when the world finds out that God is dead?: Ron Currie, Jr. reads from his novel." The feature is a link to the author's reading of the chapter "My Brother the Murderer" from his novel titled "God is Dead" (2007). In this piece, a man faces public and private alienation for the abominable actions of his brother now locked away in an Augusta, Maine mental hospital. -
Roughing the Uppers : The Great Shoe Strike of 1937
From the Lewiston Sun Journal: "The documentary tells the story of a strike that involved thousands of shoe workers and more than a dozen factories in Lewiston and Auburn [Maine]. Seeking higher wages and recognition of their union affiliation with the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations, the largely Franco-American workers called for a strike on March 24, 1937, during a mass meeting at Lewiston's city hall." -
The Story of the Acadians: A Tale of Discovery, Tragedy, and Determination
From Crown of Maine Productions: "'The Story of the Acadians' is a tale of discovery, tragedy and determination of a peace loving people who never give up. Learn how the first French settlers brought with them pre-fabricated homes from France to North America in 1604, hear about their strong relations with the native people whose alliances helped to save their lives, witness the innovative designs of the French in the construction of the unique fortresses they built, as well as the intricate system of dykes they introduced into North America....Most of all, learn how the French became Acadians with a culture of their own a culture of family values, of hard work and of a determination never to be destroyed despite numerous attacks by the British assaults which culminated in one of the worst human tragedies of all time the Deportation from Nova Scotia." -
Black Robe
From the Canadian Film Encyclopedia: "Black Robe is a bleak but majestic film about the diverse cultures of the French settlers and the Algonquin people, and the clashes between them....The hostile wilderness of 17th-century New France is the setting for the story of Father Laforgue (Bluteau), a young, idealistic Jesuit whose ambitious mission is to save the souls of the 'savages' of New France. Upon his arrival from France, Laforgue embarks on a perilous journey by canoe, from Champlain's fort upriver to a desolate Jesuit outpost where it is hoped he will 'reap a harvest of souls.' He travels through the magnificent, nearly overwhelming landscape of the Canadian North with a group of Algonquin Indians as his guides." -
Inside, Looking Out
Memoir of famed television soap opera writer and playwright, Harding Lemay. From his tumultuous early youth - one of thirteen children - on a New York farm along the Canadian border, to his lonely escape to New York City at the age of 17 and the friends who find him there. His later military training and participation in World War II in Europe. Back to Manhattan to one failed and one successful marriage, and to live and work among books: in libraries, with publishing executives, and finally as a writer. His persistent love of books and struggles with language. -
Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story
Autobiography and coming-out narrative of Paul Monette, an Andover, Massachusetts writer. Monette recounts twenty-five closeted years of alienation and invisibility, explorations of his sexual identity, and observations on the sexual prejudice and violences around him. Growing up working-class in Massachusetts; his ill younger brother; stints at prep-school and Yale in the 1960s; time spent in England; a return to Massachusetts. Written during the battle with AIDS that eventually claimed the author's life. Winner of the 1992 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Republished in 2004. -
Girls of Tender Age : A Memoir
Memoir of a woman growing up in the immigrant city of Hartford, Connecticut in the 1950s. Her French Canadian and Italian relatives, her childhood, early adulthood, and the processes of recollecting them. Divided into five parts: Mortality; Brain Jog; the Quest; What Goes Around...; The Future Is Now; followed by notes and acknowledgements. Alternates between stories from the life of the author, her friends and relatives, and the murder of a childhood friend by a Hartford serial child abuser named Robert Malm. The author's efforts at retelling the story of Malm's life, trial, and Connecticut execution, and their intersection with her life.Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, Family, Gender and Sexuality, Hartford CT, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Italy, Language and Linguistics, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Polish Americans, Québec, Religion, Vermont, Violence, Youth -
Lewis Barttro : A Vermont Franco-American in the Civil War, Born Louis Berthiaume
Brief biography of a French Canadian who fought in the American Civil War as a volunteer from Richmond, Vermont. Concludes with a brief ancestry of his family extending into 17th century France, as well as a list of his descendants now dispersed across the United States. -
Les Franco-Américains et leur héritage québécois
Une sélection de présentations du programme des "Franco-American and Quebec Heritage Series" de l'Université de l'ètat de New York (Albany) entre 1983 et 1985. Imprimé dans un numéro du périodique "Vie Française: Revue trimestrielle," publié par le Conseil de la Vie française an Amérique. Présentations dans le context de l'Amérique du nord sur (political atmospheres à QC and Washington), la langue française; la chanson folklorique; la cuisine; des objets culturelles; les écritures québécois et franco-américains; ainsi qu'un essai biographique sur Jack Kerouac. En quatre parties principales: langue; musique; culture matérielle; littérature. Composé des piièces suivants: Préface, èloise A. Briière "Les Francos au carrefour de deux mutations sociopolitiques," Dean R. Louder LANGUE "La langue française en Amérique du Nord," Joan Newburger Savitt "Langue populaire et religion au Québec : les jurons," Jean-Pierre Pichette MUSIQUE "Musique du Québec : musique en Nouvelle-France," Mireille Gagné "Bref aperçu de la chanson folklorique française en Amérique," Bernard Ouimet CULTURE MATèRIELLE "Le potentiel de l'objet dans le discours," Lise Boily "Les caractéristiques et l'évolution de la cuisine française nord-américaine," Marielle Cormier-Boudreau "La ceinture fléchée," Suzanne Galaise LITTèRATURE "L'autre littérature québécoise," Maurice Poteet "La poésie de langue française aux ètats-Unis : une lecture décontractée," Susan L. Rosenstreich "Littérature et mentalités populaires : le cas des Franco-Américains," èloise A. Briière "Jack Kérouac, Franco-Américain," Richard S. Sorrell -
An Incident Between the French Canadians and the Irish in the Diocese of Maine in 1906
An essay on the reactions of Franco American journalists and national societies to the naming of an Irish successor to the Maine Roman Catholic diocese's bishopric in 1906. Lewiston, Maine's "Le Messager" extended its criticisms to the Holy See and the whole of Church hierarchy. This drawn-out event is couched here in a brief description of Catholic demographics around that period in the state of Maine, with accompanying definitions of what were called "national" churches versus what are now labeled "territorial" parish churches.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Bangor ME, Bath ME, Biddeford ME, Connecticut, Eagle Lake ME, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Jewett City CT, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Old Town ME, Portland ME, Putnam CT, Religion, Violence, Waterville ME, Westbrook ME -
Soldiers from the Farther North : A Research Note on Canadians in the Union Army in the American Civil War
Article describing the participation of French and English Canadians in the United States Civil War. Justifications for participation - economic, political, personal, and otherwise - from primary and secondary source literature. Domestic Canadian and international implications for Canadian activity in US war. Complications of citizenship and participant moral attitudes toward nationalism, slavery, and other issues. Questions directed toward the complexities surrounding wartime immigration, travel, and/or displacement, and suggestions for further research in family and other archival collections. -
Disobedient Ancestors
Personal and historical essay weaving a son's reflections on his Québec-born, rebellious, itinerant father through the changing shape of Catholicism in New France, Lower Canada, and Québec into the 21st century. The persistent grip of a longtime North American family's roots. His father's formative youth and later hatred of clergy, their tenuous relationship, the power of cultural narrative, and the shapes that one's departing quests from them can take. -
The Ku Klux Klan in the Nashoba Valley, 1840-1933
Article describing nativist, anti-Catholic sentiment in rural Massachusetts's Nashoba Valley in the nineteenth and early twentieth century - including the towns of Shirley, Groton, and Pepperell. Negative local attitudes toward Irish and French Canadian immigrants made explicit in religious and educational contexts in what was an historically, homogeneously Protesant region. Several instances of interreligious tolerance and amicability in the same region. World War I and the regional rise in size and influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Characterizations of the KKK in New England - particularly Massachusetts, and Groton therein - in the first decades of the twentieth century, with select examples of growth, assembly, and violent discrimination.Tags Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fitchburg MA, Groton MA, Irish Americans, Lithuanian Americans, Littleton MA, Massachusetts, Mills and Mill Work, Nashoba Valley MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Pepperell MA, Polish Americans, Religion, Shirley MA, Townsend MA, Violence, West Groton MA -
The Spice of Popery : Converging Christianities on an Early American Frontier
Exploration of Maine's religious culture and various religious identities in the 17th and early 18th centuries. A study of religious eclecticism in the New England/New France borderland that complicates conventional notions of Christian orthodoxy, or of various Protestant and Catholic peoples and ways of living, in a corner of North America during the Colonial Period. The region's interactions between European Protestant settlers, Wabanaki, and French Catholics; the interplay of their various powers and religious varieties; the birth of hybrid borderland cultures; the solidification of religious identities. Particular emphasis on Catholic/Protestant conflicts in this time period and region. Illustrated with maps, portraits, and black and white photographs. Based on the 2006 dissertation of a similar title. -
Historiography of the Acadians' Grand Dérangement, 1755
Historiographical exploration of the Acadians' expulsion from their homeland region in Atlantic Canada in 1755. The roles and functions of oral and written histories on and of this time period. Description, assessment, reasoning, and judgment of the expulsion by British powers as earliest apparent in the work of 19th-century anglophone historians, and in conversation with contemporary metropolitan French historiography. The appearance of Acadian histories of the event around the beginning of the 20th century. Evolving perceptions of the event's breadth and meaning, and the impact of more recent work by scholars and literary figures of Québec and Acadia. -
The Great Textile Strike of 1934 : Illuminating Rhode Island History in the Thirties
Article describing the scope of the Great Textile Strike of 1934 in Rhode Island, in the midst of the Great Depression and the decline of the New England textile industry. The impact of the strike's upheavals on Rhode Island life in the 1930s. The role of the United Textile Workers (UTW) labor union in the nationwide strike, its organization in Rhode Island, and its impact on other labor unions - especially the National Textile Workers (NTW) and the Independent Textile Union of Woonsocket (ITU). Localized outbursts of Rhode Island violence and the context for their occurrence. The strike's implications for Rhode Island politics. Illustrated in black and white photographs.Tags Fall River MA, Government and Politics, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, New Bedford MA, Newport RI, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Pawtucket RI, Providence RI, Rhode Island, Saylesville RI, Violence, War, Warren RI, West Warwick RI, Woonsocket RI -
French Contributions to America
Historical text on French, French Canadian, and Franco American persons significant to political, social, religious, and artistic life in the United States both before and after 1776 - from the early 17th century to the 1940s. Composed of descriptions of events, deeds, and works in their historical contexts; a collection of brief biographical profiles and popular lists; genealogical sketches; place names, architecture, and businesses; and illustrative quotations. Particular geographical emphases on the Midwest and Northeast/New England regions, with consideration of whole of the United States up to 1940. Includes French translations of the Star-Spangled Banner and the Declaration of Independence. Concludes with a lengthy bibliography. Contains the following chapters: French Seedling in America For God and Country Huguenots' Contributions In the Heart of America French Military Men Explorers, Frontiers' Men, Founders Expansion of Religion Versatility Outstanding Americans of French Descent Bits of French Benevolent Works Attainments Franco-American WritersTags Arctic Centre RI, Arizona, Art and Architecture, Attleboro MA, Augusta ME, Berlin NH, Biddeford ME, Boston MA, Brockton MA, Brunswick ME, Burlington VT, Cambridge MA, Canada, Central Falls RI, Chelsea MA, Clubs and Societies, Cohoes NY, Colorado, Everett MA, Exploration and Colonization, Fall River MA, Fiction and Literature, Fitchburg MA, Florida, Fort Kent ME, France, Gardner MA, Government and Politics, Holyoke MA, Huguenots, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iroquois, Journalism, Kennebec River Valley, Kentucky, Lawrence MA, Leominster MA, Louisiana, Lowell MA, Lynn MA, Maine, Manchester NH, Marlboro MA, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Music, Nashua NH, Native Americans, New Mexico, New York, Newburyport MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, North America, North Dakota, Oswego NY, Pawtucket RI, Pennsylvania, Penobscot River Valley, Plainville CT, Plattsburgh NY, Poetry, Providence RI, Québec, Religion, Rochester NH, Rutland VT, Salem MA, Sanford ME, Scarborough ME, Sharon Heights MA, Shirley MA, Somerville NH, South Berwick ME, South Carolina, South Dakota, Southbridge MA, Springfield MA, St. Croix River Valley, St. Lawrence River Valley, Suncook NH, United States, US Midwest, Violence, Virginia, Wabanaki, Waltham MA, Wanton VT, War, Watertown NY, Waterville ME, West Warwick RI, Winooski VT, Wisconsin, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Latin Americans of the North
Essay exploring the author's personal genealogical quest in Québec. A characterization of the author's French Canadian migrant father in New England and Canada, using many themes and sentiments from Mexican author Juan Rulfo's famous novel, Pedro Páramo. How cultural inheritances straddle national borders and transform upon their crossing; the questions that lead Blaise on a search for his passed father. Written by former Director of the International Writing Program of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. -
The Acadian French and their language
Article on the Acadian people of the Canadian Maritimes and the persistence of their French vernacular. The Acadian presence in North America from the 17th century; to various settlements in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; to the 18th century expulsion, later return, and the settlements that have remained up to the 20th century. Certain French vocabulary and usage that has historically characterized Acadian speech. Introduces the life and historical, linguistic work of Pascal Poirier, scholar and statesman. Discusses the historical and literary work of author Antonine Maillet. A large section dedicated to a discussion of the etymology and usage of certain Acadian French terms. -
Whose Church Is It? Ethnic Tensions and Church Organization in New England Catholic History
Journal publication of a brief presentation on the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, with an emphasis on the prevalence of Catholicism among ethnic immigrant communities from the 19th century onward. Certain tensions between ethic Catholic communities, particularly between Irish and French Canadians that share a common geography. Historical events and conditions surrounding the ownership and governance of church buildings and property. Definitions of "corporation aggregate" and "corporation sole" as two systems of church administration. Offered in light of, and referencing, a 1990s controversy surrounding the occupation of St. Joseph's Church by its parishioners in Worcester, Massachusetts, in protest of its demolition. -
In Fair Aroostook
Subtitled, "Where Acadia and Scandinavia's Subtle Touch Turned a Wilderness into a Land of Plenty." Travel writings of a journalist's visit to Aroostook County in northern Maine at the beginning of the 20th century. The writer's impressions of landscapes, industries, and peoples there, and his perception of Scandinavian and French Acadian heritage in that region. Illustrated with photographs. Reprinted in 1973 by the Madawaska Historical Society. Full text available @ Google Books. Contains the following chapters: Frontispiece - Grand Falls on the St. John Chapter 1 - The Entrance into Maine's Great Game and Garden County Chapter 2 - Ashland and its Great Saw-mill - The Impounding of a Moose Chapter 3 - Fish River Waters - Portage Lake and Camp Iverson Chapter 4 - Into Maine's Acadia -The Fish of the Eagle Lake Chapter 5 - Fort Kent - Its Blockhouse and Training School - The Aroostook War Chapter 6 - More of the Acadians - The Girls of the Training School - "Madawaska" - The Story of the Acadians Chapter 7 - From Over the Sea - New Sweden - The Fruitage of a Great Colonization Idea Chapter 8 - Agriculture - The Backbone of Aroostook Prosperity - Coming Towns of the County - L'envoiTags Acadians, Ashland ME, Business and Economics, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Farming and Agriculture, Fishing, Forestry, Fort Fairfield ME, Fort Kent ME, Frenchville ME, Grand Isle ME, Hunting, Italian Americans, Limestone ME, Madawaska ME, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Nova Scotia, Portage Lake ME, Presque Isle ME, St. David ME, St. John River Valley, Stockholm ME, Swedish Americans, Travel and Movement, Van Buren ME, Violence, Westmanland ME -
I took my dead father to a Red Sox game
Short fiction piece by Waterville, Maine writer, Ron Currie, Jr., about a trip to Fenway Park with his dead father. Published in the online magazine, "Salon," with reference to the author's recent novel, "Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles" (Viking, 2013). -
Worker City, Company Town : Iron and Cotton-Worker Protest in Troy and Cohoes, New York, 1855-1884
A history of the growth of nineteenth-century labor movements in the neighboring industrial cities of Troy and Cohoes, New York, on the banks of the Hudson River. The labor and market conditions, social contexts, and events specific to each city that shed light on distinct origins of labor protest. Cotton, textile, and iron industries, their economic growth, and their immigrant workers in industrial New York. The connection between immigrant ethnicity, immigrant acculturation, or "adaptation," in United States industrial cities, and the occurence of collective worker protest. (3) Contains a substantial bibliography of primary and secondary sources. From the author: "[This book] examines worker adaptation in two industrial capitalist societies maturing between 1855 and 1884, and describes how specific forces and institutions affected the timing, stages, origins, and character of protest therein" (10-11).Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Albany NY, Business and Economics, Cohoes NY, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, English Americans, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, German Americans, Hudson River Valley, Irish Americans, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, New York, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Scottish Americans, Social History, Troy NY, Violence -
Actuelles : Les Franco-Américains : I & II
La transcription d'une programme de radio de série, présentée par Radio-Canada sur une période de deux semaines. Deux animateurs canadiens parlent aux personnes à travers la Nouvelle-Angleterre sur les sujets de la langue, l'immigration, la littérature, la religion, et plus encore. Divisé en chapitres suivants:
Semaine I (3-7 sept.): Les Franco-Américains L'arrivee aux Etats-Unis L'installation et les conditions de vie L'eglise catholique et les Franco-Americains: Hier et aujourd'hui Semaine II (10-14 sept.): Le peuple des invisibles Une culture nostalgique Culture, c'est aussi litterature Les Francos et la francophonie L'avenirTags Albany NY, Auburn ME, Biddeford ME, Bristol CT, Burlington VT, Business and Economics, Central Falls RI, Champlain NY, Chazy NY, Cohoes NY, Concord MA, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Essex VT, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Farming and Agriculture, Folklore, Forestry, Fort Kent ME, Greene ME, Hardwick VT, Holyoke MA, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, Language and Linguistics, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Madawaska ME, Madison ME, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Documentary, Old Orchard Beach ME, Old Town ME, Orono ME, Plattsburgh NY, Québec, Radio, Saco ME, Schenectady NY, St. John River Valley, Troy NY, US Midwest, Van Buren ME, Violence, Waterford NY, Winooski VT, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Heritage Lost and Refound : Franco-Americans in Vermont
Feature article on French Canadian and Franco American heritage in Vermont. Early 20th-century discrimination and violence against French Catholics in Vermont. Characterizations of Franco American community life among other Vermont ethnic groups; testimonies of French language loss; recent attempts to revive cultural traditions in daily life. The ways in which certain interviewees find value in their cultural heritage. Includes brief interviews and personal profiles of Vermont journalist, Tena Starr; Roman Catholic Brother Adrian Bouchard; Burlington mayor, Peter Alfred Clavelle; and musician, Martha Pellerin Drury. -
Justice and the memory of a song
Free-lance journalist's piece on overhearing her "first French joke" among students in a Maine high school. Her experience of the joke as an outsider, and her thoughts on French ethnic humor in Maine. Recalling this joke and its effects after being moved and empowered by a performance by French-speaking Franco American musicians. -
Franco-Americans eye Quebec : 'We don't need another Cuba up there'
Article on Maine Franco Americans' opposing positions relative to Québec separatism in the 1970s. Comments from state legislators, loggers, and university professionals from across the state. Thoughts on the possible positive and negative impacts of Québec's potential independence on Canada and on Franco Americans in Maine. -
Bringing Religion into Working-Class History : Parish, Public, and Politics in Providence, 1890-1930
Essay exploring the diverse ways in which the Catholic church in Providence, Rhode Island served its predominantly immigrant, working-class parishioners as a public space from which to express political opinion, and as a mouthpiece for the assertion of various civil rights. The church as meeting space, often standing in for other American means of organization, education, or public communication. "[T]he centrality of the Catholic Church in working-class public life..." (151). An attempt at a new articulation of the place of religion in 20th century American working-class history. Focuses on Providence's Irish, Italian, and French Canadian immigrant Catholics.Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Federal Hill RI, Georgiaville RI, Government and Politics, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Providence RI, Religion, Violence -
Employing the Local : A Penobscot Modern in the Federal Writers' Project
Essay exploring the 1930s Federal Writers' Project interview of Indian Island, Maine, resident and canoe maker, Henry Mitchell, transcribed by Old Town native, Robert Grady. Arguments favoring the particularly modern quality of the dually-authored interview, as compared to outside depictions of Native Americans in the local Maine literatures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. How early 20th-century Old Town business and local government perpetuated the construction of stereotyped and antiquated Penobscot cultural categories and descriptions - aesthetically, linguistically, or in terms of work and leisure. How the literary output of the Federal Writers' Project played into this sort of identity construction on a more diverse, national scale, and in what ways singular FWP interactions like those between Grady and Mitchell challenged both the national project and the local cultural categories it sometimes reinforced. What the Mitchell/Grady interview owes to the relationship out of which it was born, Grady's other interviews mostly conducted with Franco Americans in Old Town.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Business and Economics, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Indian Island ME, Maine, Native Americans, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Old Town ME, Penobscot, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Violence -
La thièse messianique et les Franco-Américains
Un bref essai sur la persistance de la religion, l'ethnocentrisme, et le nationalisme dans l'attitude des dirigeants du Québec (prêtres, les penseurs du public, et autres), comme dirigés vers les émigrants aux États-Unis au 19ième et début du 20ième siiècle. Une caractérisation de l'évolution des attitudes des prêtres catholiques du Québec sur l'émigration et leurs paroissiens migrants - notamment la façon dont l'américanisation a été confondue avec l'apostasie, et plus tard, en quelle façon l'émigration a la Nouvelle-Angleterre a été conçu comme une colonisation, ou mission messianique, francophone des Amériques. Le rôle joué par l'Église catholique au Québec et en Nouvelle-Angleterre, pendant la période d'immigration canadienne-française aux États-Unis. -
Freeing the silenced tongue : Mainers with French-Canadian roots try to revive their banished patois
Brief profile of a Waterville, Maine, group of adults intent on reclaiming the French language that permeated their earlier lives but that - for reasons personal, political, and otherwise historical - was replaced or repressed by communication in English. Includes testimonies of the circumstances surrounding language loss from others in northern Maine's St. John River Valley, as well as from a Maine documentary filmmaker. -
Franco-Americans gather for forum : French-speaking participants recall how their language drew ridicule
Article on a French-language forum about cultural heritage and viability in the St. John River Valley, northern Maine. The talk, sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council, was led by advocates for the Acadian and Quebecois heritages prevalent in Frenchville, Fort Kent, Grand Isle, and many other communities throughout northern Aroostook County and the state of Maine. -
Proudly French : Attack on Snowe maligns many Mainers
Article subtitled, "Does the United States now need a Franco-American Anti-Defamation League?" Editorial reaction to the recent uses of France and the French ethnicity in American politics as a derogatory stand-in for anti-nationalism. The author's personal reflection on his own Frenchness, and his anger at a "politics of intimidation" enacted through the misuse of cultural terms. Reflects emotions arisen after France's refusal to support US military action in Iraq. Discusses the newly coined term, "Franco-Republican." Reprinted from The Washington Post. -
For Franco-Americans, it's now or never
Subtitled, "French in New England fear their language and culture risk being lost forever unless something is done soon." An article presenting the Franco Americans in Vermont as a people at risk of cultural and linguistic assimilation. Focuses on the worries of a generation of native French speakers and direct descendents of French Canadian American immigrants over threats to their linguistic relevance, unwelcome challenges posed to the cultural currency they pass on to their own descendents, and the historical context that orientates their concerns. Includes commentary from many Vermonters, and relates their difference of opinion as to the role the French language should play in the lives of Franco Americans. Thoughts on the relevance of these concerns to the current (1980s) political movements in Quebec. -
Maine's Franco-Americans take in stride the discrimination that permeates their lives
Reprinted segment of Los Angeles Times feature article ("French in Maine Bear Bias Quietly") attempting to characterize the historical plight of the Franco American people of the state of Maine. Contains brief quotes from social leaders and commentators in Bangor, Lewiston, Van Buren, and Orono. -
'Try to Blend In:' French in Maine Bear Bias Quietly
Feature article attempting to characterize the historical plight of the Franco American people of the state of Maine. Contains brief quotes from social leaders and commentators in Bangor, Lewiston, Van Buren, and Orono. Abridged version of the article reprinted later in the Providence Journal-Bulletin ("Maine's Franco-Americans take in stride the discrimination that permeates their lives"). -
The French in Rhode Island : Historical Overview
A brief history, unpublished, of the French presence in the Rhode Island area - from France's exploration in the 16th century, to the Huguenot communities of the 17th century, French soldiers of the late 18th in the American Revolution, and the French Canadian immigrants of the most recent two hundred years. The continuing Franco American presence in Rhode Island, the cities in which French heritage is vibrant, and the institutions that have sustained certain elements of French culture. Profiles of certain prominent Rhode Islanders.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Albion RI, Arctic RI, Art and Architecture, Ashton RI, Business and Economics, Central Falls RI, Community: Customs and Social Life, East Greenwich RI, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, Frenchtown RI, Government and Politics, Lippitsville RI, Manville RI, Natick RI, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Pawtucket RI, Phenix RI, Providence RI, Religion, Rhode Island, Slatersville RI, Violence, War, Warren RI, West Warwick RI, Woonsocket RI -
Franco-American loses lawsuit
Subtitled, "Judge says TDC didn't discriminate." Article relating the results of a U.S. District Court case in which a Franco American man filed suit against his former Bangor, Maine employer for unlawful hiring practices and discrimination based on ethnicity. According to the journalist, "the case...is the first discrimination case involving a Franco-American to go to trial in Maine." -
On the ethnics of newspapers
Editorial piece on the derogatory ethnocentricity of certain recent (winter, 1992-1993) newspaper publications and radio broadcasts in central Maine, and a reflection on one Waterville, Maine, mother's reaction to them in specific. -
Maine's Corporation Sole Controversy
Study of a brief period in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the state of Maine at the beginning of the twentieth century. A political portrait of the "Corporation Sole" controversy - a drawn-out public dispute between the bishop of the Diocese and Portland and a number of Franco American parishioners seeking authority over the management of certain Maine national parishes. Named the 1972 Maine Historical Society Prize Essay, and printed in the 1973 MHS newsletter.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Biddeford ME, Brunswick ME, Business and Economics, Education, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Irish Americans, Journalism, Maine, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Québec, Religion, Sanford ME, Slovak Americans, Violence, Waterville ME -
Sentinel editorial writer inept in treatment of ethnic slurs
Letter to the editor berating Waterville, Maine's Morning Sentinel editorial staff for failing to criticize a Portland-based radio station (WBLM) that frequently included in its morning show a segment poking fun at a Franco American character. Cites an article in which the editorial staff "trivialize[d]" complaints against the radio program's arguable ethnic discrimination, and chastises the newspaper for missing an opportunity to heighten local conversation about ethnic humor and cultural stereotypes. -
'Frenchie' feature receives complaints
Article on certain reactions to Portland, Maine, radio station, WBLM's morning broadcast featuring humor based on "a slow-witted Franco-American" character. Differing public attitudes toward the station's program, including complaints issued by the Maine Human Rights Commission, defenses of the program offered by the station's management, and the varying opinions of some local radio listeners. -
How Many Frenchmen Does It Take To...?
A brief history behind ethnic slurs directed toward Franco Americans in the US Northeast. A historical contextualization of this type of discrimination in government, business, and scholarship. Some historical foundations of the "dumb Frenchman" joke. Also featured in the collection, Voyages: A Maine Franco-American Reader.Tags African Americans, Asian Americans, Auburn ME, Bangor ME, Biddeford ME, Central Falls RI, Chicopee MA, Cohoes NY, Connecticut, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Holyoke MA, Irish Americans, Journalism, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Maine, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Mexican Americans, Nashua NH, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Ethnic Studies, Old Town ME, Portuguese Americans, Quinebaug River Valley, Religion, Rhode Island, Violence, Waterville ME, Westbrook ME, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Young People's Assimilation of a Collective Historical Memory : A Case Study of Quebeckers of French-Canadian Heritage
Essay on representations of Québec history among youth. Remembrances, reconstructions, and creations of a collective past among French Canada's student-aged population as influenced by educational settings and social environments. Persistence of certain historical memories - events, ideas, attitudes - despite conditions or evidence that pose challenges to their value. -
Understanding the French Canadians of Lewiston, 1860-1900 : An Alternate Framework
Essay on the extra-cultural forces that helped to shape the French Canadian immigrant community of Lewiston, Maine. Class and ethnicity among the peoples of urban Lewiston in the second half of the 19th century. The impact of the industrial revolution on Lewiston's population and scale. The uniqueness of the French Canadian migration to Lewiston relative to other American cities. Historical comparisons between the periods of 1860-1880 and 1880-1900 regarding community, class, and business in that city. Featured in an issue of the Maine Historical Society Quarterly entitled, "Franco-Americans in Maine."Tags Alcohol and Drugs, Auburn ME, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Irish Americans, Journalism, Labor History, Lewiston ME, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Old Town ME, Québec, Religion, Social History, Travel and Movement, Violence, Waterville ME -
Sanford's son
Feature article on Sanford native, Ray Luc Levasseur, and his return to southern Maine following decades spent imprisoned for convictions associated with political activism. Some historical background about Levasseur, his hometown, and the reputation he acquired in Sanford as a "wanted" man in the 1970s and 80s. Segments of an interview with the man returned - reflections on his past, orientations toward the future. The writer of this article, the interviewer, is also a native of Sanford. -
Paroled radical glad to be back in Maine
Article on the return to southern Maine of Sanford native, Ray Luc Levasseur, after decades of imprisonment in federal penitentiary for convictions associated with his political activism. Includes a timeline from 1977 to 2004 of some of the major public events in Levasseur's life, as well as some bombings linked to activist groups in that time period. Republished in the New York Times Sunday Edition (8 August 2004). -
Kerouac in Black and White
An essay in exploration of Jack Kerouac's French-Canadianness in twentieth-century America. How digging into this particular ethnicity, time, and place shapes how one considers Kerouac's late-life ideas about race, his relationship with religion, or the stylings of his writing. Blaise considers Kerouac alongside other fiction writers (William Faulkner, Theodore Dreiser, William Saroyan, Thomas Wolfe) that, to Blaise, have engaged their fiction in similar conversations with both sentimentality and American diversity. From the author of "I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography" and "Lunar Attractions." Also published in "Selected Essays" by Clark Blaise (Emeryville, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2008). -
French-Canadian Protestants. Anxious to Move to South Carolina to Escape Alleged Persecution
1893 article on the letter of a Fall River, Massachusetts, French-Canadian Congregationalist minister to the governor of South Carolina, requesting information on how he and his protestant community might relocate to South Carolina and escape the persecution of his community by Roman Catholics in Massachusetts. -
Purity of Sidewalks: New England Cities Offer Rewards for Conviction of Spitters
Brief letter to the editor acknowledging the local governments of Fall River, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, forbidding the act of spitting on the sidewalk. Author suggests the positive effect of the law in these cities is perhaps due to their "foreign element." -
The 'Flint Affair' : French-Canadian Struggle for 'Survivance'
Article on the 1880s Fall River, Massachusetts, dispute between French Canadian immigrant Catholics, Irish American parishioners, and a largely Irish American clergy, commonly known as the "Flint Affair." The prolonged and destructive debate over French Canadian immigrant community preference for a priest of both their heritage and language to service a national parish. The various community crises instigated by both nationalistic parishioners and their resistant bishopric. "Flint village" of the Fall River Flint mills as an example of the communities and parishes borne out of turn-of-the-century emigration to the United States. Ethnic division as a symptom of linguistic barriers in church, disputes concerning the organization of labor, and passions both in favor of and against "la survivance."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Irish Americans, Massachusetts, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Providence RI, Quequechan River Valley, Religion, Rhode Island, Violence -
One Nation Divisible : Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States Since 1938
A history of the United States between 1938 and 1978 that explores the categories and convergences of class, race, and ethnicity. Measures how these three categories factored into World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. Begins with the veritable end of the large immigration period in America, moves through the political climate of the 1960s, and concludes with the impacts of American suburbanization, the blurring of categorical boundaries of class and ethnicity, and the strange persistence of class, ethnic, and racial differences amidst the continual shaping of what it means to be a citizen of the United States.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, African Americans, Asian Americans, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, German Americans, Government and Politics, Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, Mexican Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Norwegian Americans, Polish Americans, Portuguese Americans, Social History, United States, Violence, War -
My Blood is Quebecois
Essay on political activist and Vietnam veteran Ray Luc Levasseur's working-class Franco background from around the mills of Sanford, Maine. The pride he has built out of the integrity of his family and his experiences of discrimination. The cultural, social, and economic origins of his political activism, and how his efforts at educating himself and the public about social injustices continued even from behind prison walls. Presented at an event organized by the University of Maine Franco-American Centre.Tags African Americans, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Government and Politics, Labor History, Maine, Marion IL, Mills and Mill Work, Native Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Essay, Québec, Sanford ME, Springvale ME, United States, Violence -
Identité et cultures nationales : l'Amérique française en mutation
Une collection d'essais sur l'évolution du fait français en Amérique du Nord. La langue, les histoires, et les cultures de communautés francophones au Canada et aux ètats-Unis. Origines des expressions culturelles à l'époque actuelle. Articles divisés en texte par géographie: le Canada français, l'Acadie, la communauté franco-ontarienne, la communauté franco-américaine, et le Québec.
Les titres suivants:
Remerciements - Simon Langlois
Présentation - Simon Langlois
Un cas typique de mutation de la référence nationale : le Canada français - Simon Langlois
Lâ'ethnographie au secours de la nation. Mobilisation de la culture populaire par les lettrés canadiens-français (1850-1900) - Gérard Bouchard
Le Québec et le Canada français : histoire dâ'une déchirure - Fernand Harvey
Naissance, déploiement et crise de lâ'idéologie nationale acadienne - J. Yvon Thériault
Lâ'historiographie et lâ'identité acadienne aux XIXe et XXe siiècles - Jean Daigle
Des racontars des vieux à lâ'autobiographie postmoderne : une prise de parole identitaire acadienne - Lise Ouellet
La langue française en Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick, symbole dâ'appartenance, mais pas seulement… - Annette Broudreau
Lâ'historiographie et la construction de lâ'identité ontaroise - Jean Lapointe
Les Franco-Ontariens ont-ils droit au discours identitaire ? - François Paré
Les Franco-Ontariens vus à travers leur littérature - Jules Tessier
De Canadiens français des Etats-Unis à Franco-Américains : une analyse des discours de lâ'élite franco-américaine - Yves Roby
Historiographie et identité collective en Amérique française : le cas des élites francophones de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, 1872-1991 - Sylvie Beaudreau et Yves Frenette
La littérature et la construction de lâ'identité nationale : la Franco-Américanie - J.-André Senécal
La double identité de Jack Kérouac - Catherine Wells
Les Franco-Américains, la langue française et la construction de lâ'identité nationale - Gérard J. Brault
En québécois : langue de traduction, discours de lâ'identité - Annie Brisset
Identité et pluralisme libéral au Québec - Guy Laforest
Bibliographie sélective commentée sur lâ'identité et la nation dans lâ'Amérique française - Jean LamarreTags Acadians, Burlington VT, Canada, Connecticut, Danielson CT, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Fiction and Literature, Holyoke MA, Journalism, Language and Linguistics, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Nashua NH, New Brunswick, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, North Brookfield MA, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Southbridge MA, Spencer MA, Suncook NH, United States, Vermont, Violence, Winooski VT, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
A date which will live in infamy, Augusta man was survivor: Poulin 'never saw so many planes'
On the fiftieth year following the 1941 Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Lucien Poulin of Augusta, Maine, tells of his experience of the surprise bombing and his subsequent involvement in World War II. -
McAuley recalls the past: AARP's minority affairs person reflects on racism he saw in Augusta
John McAuley recalls his experience of racism while growing up in Augusta, Maine, in the 1930s. -
The General Textile Strike of 1934 : From Maine to Alabama
An account of 1934's nationwide textile strike in the United States. The trend of unionization that preceded the strike, and the strike's lasting impact on labor and industry in the United States. A specific focus on the impact of this strike in the industrial pockets of the New England states - often overshadowed by the arguably more widespread effect of labor unrest on life and industry in the American South. Includes a case study of Burlington, North Carolina, and the textile mills of Burlington Industries. From University of Missouri Press: "In January 1933, the United Textile Workers of America was in danger of collapse. Its membership was no larger than 15,000; its attempts to organize southern workers had failed disastrously; and it was constantly under attack from rival organizations. Yet, barely eighteen months later, with 300,000 dues-paying members, with newly established or revived branches covering southern cotton textile workers, as well as northern woolen and worsted workers, silk and jacquard weavers, dyers and finishers, even rayon workers, and with locals in 208 cities, towns, and mill villages, UTW was about to embark on what one historian has termed 'the greatest single industrial conflict in the history of American labor.' 'The General Textile Strike of 1934' is the story of that conflict....In 'The General Textile Strike of 1934,' John Salmond tells everyone's story. Looking at the strike from a national and an industrywide perspective, Salmond explains why workers were willing to risk protesting and describes the differences and similarities between southern and northern workers. Setting the strike within a New Deal context and focusing on its impact on the future of labor relations in the industry and on the lives of those who participated in it, 'The General Textile Strike of 1934' fills an important gap in American labor history."Tags Alabama, Augusta ME, Biddeford ME, Burlington NC, Burlington VT, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Danielson CT, Dighton MA, Easthampton MA, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Georgia, Government and Politics, Greenville SC, Hogansville GA, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Ludlow MA, Maine, Massachusetts, Mills and Mill Work, New Bedford MA, New England, New Hampshire, Newman GA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, Polish Americans, Portuguese Americans, Putnam CT, Rhode Island, Saco ME, Saylesville RI, Scottish Americans, Social History, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Violence, Virginia, Willimantic CT, Woonsocket RI -
Into the Heart of Maine : A Look at Dexter's Franco-American Community
The history of French Canadian immigration and Franco American community building in the town of Dexter, Maine. Illustrated with photos and quotes from oral interviews. From the text: "The study of French-Canadian immigration is generally centered around New England's larger cities; small towns receiving migrants are usually overlooked. This article examines the French-Canadian population in one such rural town. Dexter, Maine, serves as a microcosm of larger 'petits canadas' throughout New England, but it also projects a different type of ethnic experience. Dorothy A. Blanchard discusses the rewards and the hardships of the Franco experence in rural Maine."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Dexter ME, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Gender and Sexuality, Irish Americans, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Québec, Religion, Sebasticook River Valley, Sports and Leisure, Violence -
Ex-head of La Kermesse festival sentenced for theft
Priscille Gagnon, for head of La Kermesse Franco American festival in Biddeford, Maine, is sentenced to three months in prison after being convicted of embezzling nearly $80,000 in festival funds to pay for her husband's hospital bills. -
Convicted terrorist Raymond Luc Levasseur denied permission by parole commission to travel to Amherst
Article on Ray Luc Levasseur's suspended invitation to speak at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2009. Levasseur, a Maine resident, is serving a paroled sentence in that state for his alleged involvement in politically-motivated crimes in the 1970s and 80s. The talk at UMass, scheduled to continue without his participation, was on the topic of the 1989 sedition trial in which he was acquitted. -
The French-Canadian Heritage in New England
Comprehensive history of French Canadians and Franco Americans in New England, with an emphasis on the early 20th century. Introduced with a summary of early North American exploration and colonization. Spans in specific an historical period that begins at the time of the American Civil War and ends in the early 1980s. Attempts to touch upon persons and events captured in the news and collective memories of Franco Americans, as well as other historical signposts that teach about the unique persistence of French Canadian heritage and Franco American culture in New England. Contains a sizable bibliography.Tags Acadians, Art and Architecture, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, Farming and Agriculture, Folklore, Food, Forestry, Fur-trading, Government and Politics, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Mills and Mill Work, Music, Native Americans, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, Religion, Social History, Violence -
DAVID B. OFFER: Bigot with spray paint leaves scar on our political process
Article on the derogatory vandalism of a political sign for Augusta, Maine, State Senate candidate, Roger Katz, that sat in Augusta's Franco-American neighborhood. Offer points out the sadness of Katz, his reaction, and the immense negative reaction of the local community in Katz's support. -
Immigration, colonisation, et propagande : du reêve américain au reêve colonial
D'Editions MultiMonde: "L'un des traits marquants du XIXe siiècle a été le grand brassage de population qui a déversé sur les mers du globe des dizaines de millions d'immigrants. Jamais, depuis la fin de l'empire romain, n'avait-on vu un tel mouvement de masse, auquel même le Québec a participé. Construit autour d'une source originale les brochures de propagande parues en Grande-Bretagne, dans certains pays d'Europe continentale, au Canada, au Québec, aux États-Unis, en Afrique du Sud, en Australie et en Nouvelle-Zélande , l'ouvrage passe en revue les discours qui, pendant plus d'un siiècle, ont accompagné la conquête des terres neuves. Non seulement il en révièle le contenu, mais il en analyse aussi les procédés, pour en faire un objet de comparaison avec le discours québécois de colonisation et en exposer les particularités." -
Flight from Certainty : The Dilemma of Identity and Exile
Collection of essays in cultural criticism, with specific emphases on national, ethnic, and linguistic identities in transit. Divided in the text by the geographies to which each essay pertains. From the introduction: "The authors [in 'Flight from Certainty'] have attempted to combine scholarship, personal experience, wit, and irony in dealing with questions which so far have gone unanswered: 'How far is identity modelled by the country in which people grow up and believe they have their roots? What happens to the concept of identity when a person abandons one country to live in another?'"Tags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Africa, Australia, Criticism and Review, Emigration and Immigration, England, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, India, Ireland, Italy, Literary Works -- Criticism and History, Louisiana, New England, New Zealand, Québec, Sanford ME, South Africa, South Asia, Sri Lanka, Violence -
Ballots and Bibles : Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence
From Cornell University Press: "Through her account of the newcomers' fight for political inclusion, Evelyn Savidge Sterne offers a fresh perspective on the nationwide struggle to define American identity at the turn of the twentieth century....In a departure from standard histories of immigrants and workers in the United States, 'Ballots and Bibles' views religion as a critical tool for new Americans seeking to influence public affairs. In Providence, this book demonstrates, Catholics used their parishes as political organizing spaces. Here they learned to be speakers and leaders, eventually orchestrating a successful response to Rhode Island's Americanization campaigns and claiming full membership in the nation."Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Ireland, Italy, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Government and Politics, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Providence RI, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Violence, War -
New England and the Maritime Provinces : Connections and Comparisons
Collection of essays by various scholars on New England, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island - critical geographies to what has emerged in historical studies in recent decades as the field of North American "borderland studies." Essays consider the histories between these regions both before and after the establishment of political borders in a culturally diverse space. The implications of regionalism, nationalism, and business for neighboring spaces within two countries. Contains the following writings: Introduction - Stephen J. Hornsby and John G. Reid Pre-European Dawnland: Archaeology of the Maritime Peninsula - David Sanger Spaces of Power in the Early Modern Northeast - Elizabeth Mancke Passamaquoddy Identity and the Marchall Decision - William Wicken New England Soldiers in the St. John River Valley, 1758-1760 - Geoffrey Plank Before Borderlands: Yankees, British, and the St. John Valley French - Béatrice Craig Comparative Economic Advantage: Nova Scotia and New England, 1720s-1860s - Julian Gwyn Variations on a Borderlands Theme: Nativism and Collective Violence in Northeastern North America in the Mid-Nineteenth Century - Scott W. See Nova Scotia and the American Presence: Seeking Connections Without Conquest, 1848-1854 - D.A. Sutherland The Command of Money in Shaws'Borderlands, 1859-1887 - Jacques Ferland Re-Examining the Economic Underdevelopment of the Maritime Provinces: A Case Study of Portland, Maine, and Saint John, New Brunswick - Robert H. Babcock Maine-Maritimes Folklore: The Lumberwoods Connection - Edward (Sandy) D. Ives Canadaian and American Policy Making in Response to the First Multi-Species Fisheries Crisis in the Greater Gulf of Maine Region - Deborah C. Trefts More Buck for the Bang: Sporting and the Ideology of Fish and Game Management in Northern New England and the Maritime Provinces, 1870-1900 - Bill Parenteau and Richard W. Judd The "Boston States": Region, Gender, and Maritime Out-Migration, 1870-1930 - Betsy Beattie Borderlands, Baselines, and Big Game: Conceptualizing the Northeast as a Sporting Region - Colin D. Howell The Epic of Greater North America: Themes and Periodization in North American History - Reginald C. Stuart and M. Brook Taylor Peeping Through the Cracks: Seeking Connections, Comparisons, and Understanding in Unstable Space - Graeme WynnTags Boston MA, Business and Economics, Canada, Connecticut, Criticism and Review, Death and Disaster, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, Fishing, Folklore, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Geography, Government and Politics, Great Britain, Maine, Massachusetts, Native Americans, New Brunswick, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, Nova Scotia, Portland ME, Prince Edward Island, Rhode Island, Sports and Leisure, St. John River Valley, United States, Vermont, Violence -
Minority Women of North America : A Comparison of French-Canadian and Afro-American women
A comparison of the historical situations and social positions of French Canadian and African American women. An examination of their family and community roles, cultural stereotypes, and social and politicals achievement levels. Situates the origins of each population on the North American continent - one in servitude in seventeenth-century New France, the other in forced immigration and slavery in the United States of the same time. Focuses on the phenomenon of a "double-oppression" - or the sum of one's ethnic minority and gender statuses - and what is required for the doubly oppressed to be "liberated." Acknowledgement of gendered differences in the separate gains made by each minority group. Republished in Le FAROG Forum (April 1988), University of Maine. -
Franco-American Life and Culture in Manchester, New Hampshire : Vivre La Différence
An intimately crafted Franco American cultural history of Manchester, New Hampshire, written by one of its resident historians. From the author of such works as "One Piece in the Great American Mosaic," "La Presse Franco-Américaine et La Politique," and "Elpheège-J. Daignault et le mouvement sentinelliste," among others. From The History Press: "A strong sense of unity and tradition frames a fascinating history of Manchester, New Hampshire's Franco-American community. Author Robert B. Perreault presents this story through compelling vignettes, including the triumphant success of photographer Ulric Bourgeois, the undeniable conflict between the French and Irish immigrants, and a colorful profile of book collector and author Adélard Lambert. Featuring vintage images from Perreault's private collection, this work is a stunning visual narrative of the French-Canadian contributions to local culture."Tags Art and Architecture, Community: Customs and Social Life, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Gender and Sexuality, Journalism, Labor History, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History, Violence -
Hard Stone, Hard Feelings
Article compiled from oral history interviews Vermont stonecutters of the early twentieth century. Featured in the Vermont Folklife Center's annual publication, "Visit'n." From the Vermont Historical Society: "Because many French Canadians first came to work in Barre's granite quarries during the strikes of '22 and '33, their relations with Italian granite workers and other ethnic groups were at first very tense."Tags Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Folklore, Italian Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History, Nonfiction -- History -- Documentary, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Stonecutting, Vermont, Violence -
"Why Don't You Be a Klansman?" Anglo-Canadian Support for the Ku Klux Klan Movement in 1920s New England
From the author: "This article examines a little-known dimension to the Ku Klux Klan movement in the United States during the 1920s. As Anglo-Canadian Protestants supported the KKK to assert control over French-Canadian and other Catholics in the New England states, they undermined the Klan's emphasis on Americanism and illustrated an inherent contradiction in this avowedly nativist organization."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Alberta, Auburn ME, Barre VT, Bath ME, Biddeford ME, Canada, Central Falls RI, Colorado, Connecticut, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Government and Politics, Greenville ME, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Maine, Manchester NH, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Brunswick, New England, New Hampshire, New York, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Saco ME, Saskatchewan, Toronto ON, United States, Vermont, Violence, Washington, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Steeples and Smokestacks : A Collection of Essays on the Franco-American Experience in New England
Essay collection on the diverse aspects of Franco American community and life in New England. Emphases on French Canadian immigration to New England; religion, education, and community life; and Franco American literature. Includes a wide range of materials from writers and scholars throughout the region. Contents: Claire Quintal - Introduction I. Emigration Yves Roby - "The Economic Evolution of Quebec and the Emigrant (1850-1929)" Mason Wade - "The Acadian Background" Fernand Arsenault - "Acadians and Emigration" Neil Boucher - "The Case of the Acadians of Southwest Nova Scotia" II. Franco-American Communities Gerard J. Brault - "An Overview of Studies Relating to Franco-American Communities in New England" Frances H. Early - "The Settling-In Process: The Beginnings of the Little Canada in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the Late Nineteenth Century" Marcella Harnish Sorg - "Community Formation in Old Town, Maine, 1835-1930: Endogamy and Natal Origins Among the Acadians" Michael J. Guignard - "The Franco-Americans of Biddeford, Maine" Philip T. Silvia, Jr. - "Neighbors from the North: French-Canadian Immigrants vs. Trade Unionism in Fall River, Massachusetts" Charles W. Estus and Kenneth J Moynihan - "Beyond Textiles: Industrial Diversity and the Franco-American Experience in Worcester, Massachusetts" Paul D. LeBlanc - "From Farm to Factory: Acadians in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (1880-1910)" III. Religion Michael J. Guignard - "The Corporation Sole Controversy" Yves Roby - "Franco-Americans and the Catholic Hierarchy" Jacquelyn Alix, P.F.M - "The Foundation of the Little Franciscans of Mary in Worcester, Massachusetts" Yves Garon, A.A. - "The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joan of Arc: A Franco-American Foundation" Pierre E. Lanchance, O.P. - "Saint Anne's Shrine, Fall River, Massachusetts" IV. Education Armand B. Chartier - "The Spiritual and Intellectual Foundations of the Schooling of Franco-Americans" Gerard J. Brault - "The Achievement of the Teaching Orders in New England: The Franco-American Parochial Schools" V. Literature, Journalism, and Folklore Armand B. Chartier - "Toward a History of Franco-American Literature: Some Considerations" Robert B. Perreault - "The Franco-American Press: An Historical Overview" Richard S. Sorrell - "La Sentinelle and La Tribune: The Role of Woonsocket's French Language Newspapers in the Sentinelle Affair of the 1920s" Richard S. Sorrell - "'History as a Novel, the Novel as History': Ethnicity and the Franco-American English-Language Novel" Béatrice Belisle MacQueen - "Corinne Rocheleau-Rouleau (1881-1963): Advocate for the Handicapped" Janet L. Shideler - "Camille Lessard-Bissonnette (1883-1970): Immigrant Author and Itinerant Journalist" Michel Lapierre - "Rosaire DIon-Lévesque (1900-1974): Poet and Translator of Walt Whitman" Brigitte Lane - "Three Major Witnesses of Franco-American Folklore in New England: Honoré Beaugrand, Adélard Lambert, and Roméo Berthiaume" Donald Deschênes - "The Dream of a Better Life in the Songs of Departure for the United States" VI. The Franco-American Woman Charlotte Borders LeBlanc - "History and Mission of the Fédération Féminine Franco-Américaine (1951-1991)" Marcelle Chenard - "A Franco-American Lay Missionary, Iriène Farley (1893-1961" Yves Roby - "A Portrait of the Femal Franco-American Worker (1865-1930)" VII. Franco-Americans Today Madeleine D. Giguière - "New England's Francophone Population Based Upon the 1990 Census" Clarence J. d'Entremont - "Acadian Survivance in New England" Yves Roby - "From Franco-Americans to Americans of French-Canadian Origin or Franco-Americanism, Past and Present" VIII. The View From Within Claude Milot - "Arthur Milot's Memoirs: Childhood Memories" Lucien A. Aubé - "From the Parochial School to and American University: Reflections on Cultural Fragmentation" David Plante - "Tsi Gars" John Dufresne - "Telling Stories in Mémière's Kitchen" Claire Quintal - ContributorsTags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Bibliography, Biddeford ME, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Death and Disaster, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Farming and Agriculture, Fiction and Literature, Fitchburg MA, Folklore, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Journalism, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Lynn MA, Madawaska ME, Maine, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, Montréal QC, Music, New Brunswick, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, Nova Scotia, Old Town ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Vermont, Violence, Waltham MA, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Radicals of the Worst Sort : Laboring Women in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1860-1912
New England women's labor history text from a professor of American and New England studies at the University of Southern Maine. Focuses on Lawrence, Massachusetts, as a town with a diversity of worker and ethnic experience, and the relationship between this and gender at the beginning of the twentieth century in industrial America. From the publisher's website: "Ardis Cameron focuses on the textile workers' strikes of 1882 and 1912 in this examination of class and gender formation as drawn from the experience and language of the working-class neighborhoods of Lawrence [Mass.]. She shows clearly that the working women who unionized and fought for equality were considered the 'worst sort' because they challenged both economic and sexual hierarchies, providing alternative models for turn-of-the-century women." -
Factory Under the Elms : A History of Harrisville, New Hampshire, 1774-1969
Nearly two hundred years of history in a New Hampshire town. Harrisville's businesses and communities, the production of its farms, and the centrality of its mills. The economic, political, and social transformations of Harrisville laid out chronologically, with great emphasis on the impact of industry and immigration. From the author: "This book describes the evolution of a small mill town in New England."Tags Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Farming and Agriculture, Government and Politics, Harrisville NH, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Religion, Violence, War -
The Trial Statements of Ray Luc Levasseur
Ray Luc Levasseur's statements from the 1989 criminal trial where he represented himself against accusations of racketeering. He places himself and a working-class Franco (Sanford, Maine) upbringing in the course of an American class struggle, weaving his personal history through the international political tumult of the 1960s and 1970s. One published statement is now entitled "From the Shadows of the Mills," and can be read at the URL below. -
French Neutrals in Massachusetts: the Story of Acadians Rounded up by Soldiers from Massachusetts and Their Captivity in the Bay Province, 1755-1766
Tags Boston MA, Charlestown MA, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Government and Politics, Hingham MA, Lexington MA, Malden MA, Marblehead MA, Medfield MA, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Plymouth MA, Religion, Roxbury MA, Salem MA, Stoughton MA, Violence, Weston MA, Weymouth MA, Woburn MA -
The Franco-Americans : A Franco-American's Chronicle of Historical and Cultural Environment : Augusta Revisited
A thorough history of the Franco American presence in the city of Augusta, Maine, up to the 1970s. Histories of mill, church, school, and community, from their migrant inception through sometimes celebratory, sometimes violent, persistence. Illustrated with anecdote and commentary. Contains in the appendices lists of names of city officials, social club presidents, and clergy, among others.Tags Augusta ME, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Hallowell ME, Ireland, Kennebec River Valley, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, Native Americans, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Québec, Religion, Sand Hill ME, Sports and Leisure, Violence -
History of the Acadians
Translation of the first volume of Arsenault's original historical collection, "Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens." This volume, "Histoire des Acadiens," attempts a comprehensive history of the Acadian people - their arrival in sixteenth-century North America, the developments of their communities in modern day Nova Scotia, and their historical persistence through expulsion and dispersion. This volume sets the context for the more intimately local and pointedly genealogical approaches to the subject of the Acadians undertaken in the subsequent volumes of Arsenault's collection.Tags Acadians, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, Exploration and Colonization, Family, Farming and Agriculture, France, Genealogy, Government and Politics, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi River Valley, Native Americans, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, Nova Scotia, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Prince Edward Island, Québec, St. Lawrence River Valley, Violence -
Histoire des Franco-Américains
Un histoire compliète des franco-américains - les français et canadiens-français en Amérique - depuis le temps de Champlain (17e siiècle) jusqu'à la fin de la Deuxiième Guerre Mondiale. Cet volume a été publié par l'Union St. Jean Baptiste d'Amérique, ainsi les concentrations de chaque chapitre et chaque sous-section sont généralement en ce qui concerne le bien-être et les préoccupations de cette organisation: son église (Catholique), sa géographie (la Nouvelle-Angleterre), ses affaires, et sa politique. Un historien qui est né en France et a émigré à Québec, Robert Rumilly est surtout connu d'être favorable aux sentiments politiques nationalistes dans ses oeuvres historiques. Son livre le plus connu est "l'Histoire de la province de Québec."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Baltimore MD, Biddeford ME, Brunswick ME, Burlington VT, Business and Economics, Canada, Chicago IL, Community: Customs and Social Life, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Exploration and Colonization, Fall River MA, Forestry, Government and Politics, Haiti, Holyoke MA, Irish Americans, Journalism, Lewiston ME, Louisiana, Manchester NH, Montréal QC, Nashua NH, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, North Brookfield MA, Portland ME, Providence RI, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Springfield MA, United States, Vermont, Violence, War, Waterville ME, Willimantic CT, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
"This is Not a Catholic Nation" : The Ku Klux Klan Confronts Franco-Americans in Maine
From MIT Press Journals: "During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan expanded to the northeastern United States, where it confronted Franco-American Catholics throughout Maine. In response, this ethnic population modeled an appropriate resistance to the KKK's unyielding message of Americanism and nativism, helping to precipitate the demise of this reactionary mass movement." -
The Acadian Migrations
A concise account of the Acadian migrations between 1750 and 1800, including intercontinental migration routes, community prevalance, and the political context that motivated such a tumultuous half-century in and out of Atlantic Canada.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Connecticut, Emigration and Immigration, England, Exploration and Colonization, France, Geography, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Newfoundland, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Geography, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, Québec, South Carolina, St. John River Valley, St. Lawrence River Valley, Violence -
Voyages : A Maine Franco-American Reader
Celebrated collection of essays, stories, poems, songs, art, and other works on the history of Franco American people and their communities in Maine. Features the following writings by their respective authors, in order of appearance:
Foreword by Nelson Madore Appreciation by the Editors Preface by Michael Michaud Introduction by Barry Rodrigue and Others Gentility on the Frontiers of Acadia, 1635-1674: An Archaeological Perspective, by Alaric Faulkner Eastern Abenaki Autonomy and French Frustrations, 1745-1760, by David Ghere An Album in the Attic: The Forgotten Frontier of the Quebec-Maine Borderlands During the Revolutionary War, by Barry Rodrigue Life on the Farm and Recipes, by Luella and Eva Ashland Roderick Immigrants in a Frontier Community: Madawaska, 1785-1850, by Béatrice Craig An Acadian Odyssey, by Don Cyr Soldiers, Spuds, and Spruce: Maine's Military Roads to the Maritimes, by Barry Rodrigue Understanding the French Canadians of Lewiston, 1860-1900, by Yves Frenette Immigrant Dream - I, by Susann Pelletier Growing Up in Brunswick in the 1930s and 1940s, by Raymond Duval Petit Bois, by Claude Bonang with Katie Camiré Into the Heart of Maine: A Look at Dexter's Franco-American Community, by Dorothy Blanchard Sawdust in My Ear, by Roland Lapointe Franco-American and Lebanese Textile Workers in Waterville: La survivance economique, by Matthew Laflamme "Je ne regrette rien:" Franco-American Women in Maine: Survival, Resiliency, and Community, by Céleste DeRoche A La Mémoire de nos Ancetres (To the Memory of Our Ancestors), by Mercedes Gastonguay The French Catholics in Maine, by Clement Thibodeau Negotiating Ethnic Identity: St. Jean-Baptiste Day Celebrations in Francophone Lewiston, Maine, by Mark Paul Richard Donat Labbé - Woods Cook, by Yvon Labbé The Jackman and Moose River Mission: From France to America with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyons, 1904-1932, by Gérard Forgue A New Home, by Paul Caron A Childhood Memory: Midnight Mass at St. Peter's and St. Paul's, by Helen Lévesque Maine's Corporation Sole Controversy, by Michael Guignard The Summer I Was Thirteen, by Denis Ledoux An Introduction to "Life in the Mills" from Canuck, a Novel by Camille Lessard-Bissonnette, by Linda Pervier "Life in the Mills," Excerpt from Canuck, by Camille Lessard-Bissonnette and Linda Pervier An Introduction to Canuck and Camille Lessard-Bissonnette: Why Read It Now?, by Sylvie Charron and Rhea Côté Robbins Franco-Americans and the International Paper Company Strike of 1910, by Anders Larson An Excerpt from Papa Martel, by Gérard Robichaud J'Aimais (I Used to Love), by Jean-Paul Poulain Passing the Flame, by Cindy Larock French-Canadian Genealogical Research, by Bob Chenard Down the Plains, an Excerpt, by Rhea Côté Robbins Calice, by Greg Chabot The Lane Road, 1958, by Susann Pelletier What We Gather in November, by Susann Pelletier How Many Frenchmen Does It Take to..., by C. Stewart Doty The Lessons of Living in a Francophobic World, by Pat LaMarche French Jokes, Anonymous When Funny Might Not Be..., by Ernie Gagné One of Frenchie's Stories: In Heat, by Ernie Gagné La Graine Pousse (The Seed Sprout), by Normand Dubé Everything's Just Finophobia, by Greg Chabot Research Note: Maine "Jim Crow"? The Forgotten Maine Constitutional Amendment of 1891, by Rebecca Dirnfeld A Short Biography for My Daughter, by Raymond Luc Lavasseur Under Wintery Constellation, by Susann Pelletier A ceux qui m'ont offensé (For Those Who Have Offended Me), by Jean-Paul Poulain Franco-American Identity at the University of Maine, by Michael Serizawa Brown Beau Frog, by Peter Archambault Out of the Shadows, by Yvon Labbé Photo-Documentary: Franco-American Work Traditions, by Jere DeWaters A Québec Soldier in Maine, by Barry Rodrigue The Silent Playground, by Ross and Judy Paradis Mémere (Grandmother), by Raymond Luc Lavasseur Tourtiière (Meat Pie), by Philomiène Létourneau Simard and Diane Simard McKenney Voicing Mémière, by Kristin Langellier On Becoming a Franco-American, by Richard Pattenaude She Appears, by Jim Bishop Livres (Books), by Maureen Perry My Writing of La Souillonne (The Filthy Woman), by Normand Beaupré "Qui Chus" (Who I Am), Excerpt from La Souillonne, by Normand Beaupré Franco-Americans and a Century of Political Elections, 1892-1992, by Madeleine Giguière Ad Astra per Aspera - To the Heavens through Hardship: The Franco-American Rise to Political Power in Maine, by Christian Potholm First Campaigns, Georgette Bérubé Maine Franco-Americans in Politics, by John Martin Singing the Vernacular, Excerpts, by Paul Paré Brunswick: A Bridge and Its History, by Julianna L'Heureux Les Non Non Blues (The No No Blues), by Josée Vachon Acadian Ployes, by Emily Clavet Ouellette Martin and Sandra Dionne Croft The Neighborhood, by Michelle Morgan Why Bother? by Michael ParentTags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Art and Architecture, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Fiction and Literature, Folklore, Food, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Genealogy, Geography, Government and Politics, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Music, Native Americans, New Brunswick, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, Nova Scotia, Performing Arts, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Québec, Religion, Social History, Sports and Leisure, Violence, War -
Les "Petits Canadas" de la Nouvelle-Angleterre
De l'auteur: "La communauté franco-américaine de Nouvelle-Angleterre, ou «communauté franco», est relativement méconnue en France. L'action qu'elle conduit pour faire reconnaître son identité au sein de la région qui l'accueille offre pourtant un témoignage remarquable de ses capacités de survivance - son « réveil » actuel atteste en outre de la maturité et de l'ouverture de la société américaine d'aujourd'hui qui, apriès avoir perçu comme une menace la présence franco, l'accepte maintenant avec fierté et reconnaissance. Au XXIe siiècle, il y a un avenir pour le fait français en Nouvelle- Angleterre, il y a une place, nous disent aussi les Américains, pour la diversité culturelle au service de la cohésion nationale."Tags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Biddeford ME, Boston MA, Brunswick ME, Calais ME, Castine ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut River Valley, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fort Kent ME, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, Montpelier VT, Montréal QC, Mt. Desert Island ME, New Bedford MA, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- French in North America, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Religion, Saco River Valley, Southbridge MA, St. John River Valley, Violence, Woonsocket RI -
'Monsieur Maurras est ici' : French Fascism in Franco-American New England
Essay on the Franco American elite's adopted regard for French fascist politics and sentiment in New England. How WWII heightened political divisions in the United States, and the Franco elite failed to appeal politically to working-class Franco American communities. Includes discussion of 1920s and 30s Franco American political figures, as well as an exploration of the Sentinelle Affair vis-à -vis French fascism.Tags Biddeford ME, Central Falls RI, Chicopee MA, Cohoes NY, Demography, Education, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, France, Government and Politics, Holyoke MA, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Nashua NH, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Government and Politics, Québec, Quinebaug River Valley, Violence, War, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
From Mills to Millennium : Documenting Social Change Through Oral Histories Among Three Generations of Franco-Americans in Manchester
Dissertation describing the historical development of a Franco American cultural identity through oral history interviews conducted by the author with sixteen Franco American people in the Manchester, New Hampshire region. Includes two parts: video recording of interviews and thesis text with historical background, select transcription, and contextualized analysis of interviews. Interviewees vary in age between 19 to 90. Includes personal historical introduction, historical background on the Franco American community in Manchester, and discussion of broad themes relevant to interview topics as identified by the author: memory, place, and identity as well as "family, education, religion, and discrimination"(iv). Discussion of "assimilation theory" in a Franco American context.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, German Americans, Greek Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Manchester NH, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Social Science: Anthropology and Sociology, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, Nonfiction -- Sociology, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Polish Americans, Religion, Violence -
The People of Survivance : Franco-Americans in New England
Thesis on late twentieth-century New England Franco American literature and some of its creators - John Dufresne, Dorianne Laux, Steven Riel, Denis Ledoux, Susann Pelletier, Bill Tremblay, David Rivard - couched in a culture-specific analysis of historical identity and psychological debt. How these literary figures and their work at once inform and are informed by regional and familial experiences of ethnicity, language, religion. Close-readings of their work informed by writings of psychoanalysts Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva. -
L'identité des Acadiens de la vallée du Saint-Jean
Étude sur l'identité ethnique et sa transformation dans les Acadiens de la vallée de la riviière Saint-Jean au nord de l'état du Maine dans les années 1990; analyse basée sur des recherches historiques et des données locales et multi-générationnelles acquises par un questionnaire distribué à Fort Kent, Madawaska, Ste. Agathe, et Van Buren; information sur la langue, la famille, la géographie, et la conscience ethnique; introduction historique aux Acadiens de l'Amerique du Nord; une copie du questionnaire en annexeTags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Fort Kent ME, France, Great Britain, Language and Linguistics, Madawaska ME, Maine, Native Americans, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Language and Linguistics, Nova Scotia, Religion, St. Agatha ME, St. John River Valley, Travel and Movement, Van Buren ME, Violence -
Folkways of Pre-Expulsion Acadians in Selected French, British, and American Writers : A Comparative Analysis of Similarities and Differences in Expressed Thought
Historiography of Acadia up to 1755. Analysis of writings on the Acadian people as they were thought to have lived in Atlantic Canada before their 18th-century expulsion. Presentation of pre-expulsion Acadian customs, behaviors, and social life as described by French, British, and American writers. Comparisons of these descriptions, and arguments on the religious and political biases evident in them. An attempt at relating the historical origins of these biases and descriptive trends in order to clarify a presentation of the pre-expulsion Acadian population.Tags Acadians, Canada, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Education, England, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, Farming and Agriculture, Fiction and Literature, Folklore, France, Government and Politics, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthropology, Nonfiction -- Folklore, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, North America, Nova Scotia, Religion, Violence -
Ethnic Working Class Protest : The Textile Strike of 1922 in Rhode Island
Dissertation on ethnicity and working-class life in early-twentieth-century Rhode Island. Particular emphasis on the causes and effects of a violent 1922 strike at B.B. and R. Knight Mills on the banks of the Pawtuxet River in Natick, Rhode Island. The strike involved an extended mass protest, the intervention of the state militia, and the eventually successful pleading of a local Catholic priest.Tags Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Italian Americans, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, Natick RI, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Ethnic Studies, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Pawtuxet River Valley, Religion, Rhode Island, Violence -
The Anarchist Heart
Volume of poetry from native of Southbridge, Massachusetts and creator of collections "Crying in the Cheap Seats" (1971), "Duhamel" (1986), and the novel "The June Rise" (1994), among other works. Professor in creative writing at Colorado State University. This work is presented in five sections: The Community; Readings; Little Miracles; California; The Anarchist Heart. -
The Way That Water Enters Stone
Collection of short stories from native of Worcester, Massachusetts and professor of creative writing at Florida International University. Author of the novels "Louisiana Power & Light" (1994), "Love Warps the Mind a Little" (1997), "Requiem, Mass." (2008), and several other works of prose.Tags Baton Rouge LA, Boston MA, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Family, Florida, Gorham ME, Irish Americans, Lake Winepesaukee NH, Leominster MA, Literary Works, Literary Works -- Fiction, Literary Works -- Short fiction, Louisiana, Lowell MA, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Old Orchard Beach ME, Orono ME, Providence RI, Saco ME, Sanford ME, Scarborough ME, Violence, Worcester MA -
The Angel on the Roof
Collection of previously published and some uncollected short stories, from 1975 to 2000. From the New England-native author of several novels including "Cloudsplitter" and "Continental Drift." Accounts of breaking laws in Katonga, playing hockey in Catamount, moving furniture in Florida hotels, dodging family matters over the telephone, and accidental death. Many stories set in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. -
Loup Garou
Short story narrated by a writer frequently at odds with her spiny and somewhat distant lover on their roadtrip from Oregon to the East Coast. -
Continental Drift
Novel following Bob Dubois, a New Hampshire oil burner repairman, and his attempted escape from discontent to a "fresh start" in Florida with his family. Entwined with the story of Vanise, a Haitian emigrant, and the severities she endures with her family along the sea route northward to Florida. -
Under Canadian Skies : A French-Canadian Historical Romance
Novel of historical fiction depicting the Rebellion of 1837 in Canada. Philippe Champagne and Edouard Dumas are two young attorneys whose advocacy on behalf of Lower Canada carries them from Montréal to the Québec countryside, and from the Champagne family and their friends to some of the most notable political figures of the period. The spy, Mireau, who unsettles Lower Canada and threatens its rebellion. Shots fired and swordplay between peasant militia and advancing soldiers. Depictions of animosity between English and French Canadians. Written by a Rhode Island author, and introduced with a brief discussion of New England French speakers. -
Vandal Love
Novel tracing a century of Québec's Hervé family in the United States and Canada, and the genetic conditions that have turned its offspring "alternately [into] brutes or runts" (4). Jude the emigrant boxer in 1960s Georgia and Louisiana, and Isa, his abandoned daughter, into Virginia and Maine. Georgianne and the runt orphaned grandchild, François, from Québec across the Canadian provinces in the middle 20th century; Harvey, his son, and the parental separation that removes one from the other. Harvey's personal spiritual quest across the American Southwest. The tragedy and genealogical loops that unify the characters and their movements through time across North America. -
Postnational United States Regional Hinterlands : Proulx's Ethnic Working-Class Communities in Accordion Crimes
Essay analyzing Annie Proulx's novel, "Accordion Crimes," according to the ethnic groups, working-classes, and cultural identities its characters simultaneously challenge and represent. A mid-1990s United States commentary on assimilation, acculturation, race, and place-identity in which this article's author situates the novel. The symbol of the accordion across cultural and geographic lines, within and across certain immigrant communities in the United States, in environments that temper American myths of upward mobility, and within musical communities of diverse qualities.Tags African Americans, Basque, Cajuns, Chicago IL, Creoles, German Americans, Immigration, Iowa, Italian Americans, Literary Works, Literary Works -- Criticism and History, Louisiana, Maine, Mexican Americans, Minnesota, Montana, Music, Polish Americans, Québec, Sicilian Americans, Viennese Americans, Violence -
The Corpse in the Stone Wall : Annie Proulx's Ironic New England
Essay describing Annie Proulx's critical treatment of New England - in particular, Vermont - in her works of fiction, "Postcards" and "Heart Songs." Tenuous and tenacious relationships of characters to their rural New England landscapes at once idyllic and ruinous. The failures of fictional New England locals and tourists alike, and the "cultural politics" that pit outside economic influence and quaint projections of regional identity against the provincial knowledge afforded in home spaces and local tradition. Comparisons of Proulx's "New England fiction" to her later works set in and about Wyoming. -
David Plante
Radio interview with author David Plante on the occasion of the publication of his novel, "ABC" (Pantheon, 2008). Discussions of Plante's literary engagement with ghosts; with the notions of suffering, belief, and grief; origin and "the ultimate"; and the role of family. Brief discussion of the Providence, Rhode Island Catholic parish cultural milieu of his upbringing. -
Awake
Book of poems from Augusta, Maine native and creative writing teacher at North Carolina State University. Contains foreword by Philip Levine. Republished in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon University Press. -
Husbands and Lovers
Poem from a Lisbon, Maine writer and founder of poetry's BOA Editions. Dedicated to David Plante. Featured in the New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly published by Middlebury College. Republished posthumously in a collection of A. Poulin, Jr's works, "Selected Poems" (2001). -
Requiem, Mass.
Novel centered around a family of four and a son's retelling of his disrupted youth. An absent, long-haul trucker father and his multiple families; a psychologically troubled mother who claims, among other things, that her children are imposters; an imaginative younger sister; the ubiquitous cat. The real and make-believe characters who intersect the narrator's life at home, school, and wherever his journeys take him in his attempts to save his family - in life or in story. Plays with, and discusses, concepts of fiction and memoir. Written by Worcester, Massachusetts native and teacher of Creative Writing at Florida International University. Winner of the Florida Book Award. -
Letourneau's Used Auto Parts
The second in a collection of novels by this North Parsonsfield, Maine author. Set in the fictional, rural Maine town of Egypt. A series of vignettes centered around Big Lucien Letourneau, his family, and the other hardscrabble characters in their rural community. Letourneau's auto parts business and all the quirks, love, and violence between the people in his salvage yard/shantytown known as "Miracle City." -
Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story
Autobiography and coming-out narrative of Paul Monette, an Andover, Massachusetts writer. Monette recounts twenty-five closeted years of alienation and invisibility, explorations of his sexual identity, and observations on the sexual prejudice and violences around him. Growing up working-class in Massachusetts; his ill younger brother; stints at prep-school and Yale in the 1960s; time spent in England; a return to Massachusetts. Written during the battle with AIDS that eventually claimed the author's life. Winner of the 1992 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Republished in 2004. -
The Great Textile Strike of 1934 : Illuminating Rhode Island History in the Thirties
Article describing the scope of the Great Textile Strike of 1934 in Rhode Island, in the midst of the Great Depression and the decline of the New England textile industry. The impact of the strike's upheavals on Rhode Island life in the 1930s. The role of the United Textile Workers (UTW) labor union in the nationwide strike, its organization in Rhode Island, and its impact on other labor unions - especially the National Textile Workers (NTW) and the Independent Textile Union of Woonsocket (ITU). Localized outbursts of Rhode Island violence and the context for their occurrence. The strike's implications for Rhode Island politics. Illustrated in black and white photographs.Tags Fall River MA, Government and Politics, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, New Bedford MA, Newport RI, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Pawtucket RI, Providence RI, Rhode Island, Saylesville RI, Violence, War, Warren RI, West Warwick RI, Woonsocket RI -
The Buried City
Short story that finds George returned to his family's New England home and to Hunter, his brother, as they struggle through the emotional aftermath of their mother's funeral. An early work from Providence, Rhode Island-native author of "The Country," "The Family," and the memoir, "American Ghosts." -
Historiography of the Acadians' Grand Dérangement, 1755
Historiographical exploration of the Acadians' expulsion from their homeland region in Atlantic Canada in 1755. The roles and functions of oral and written histories on and of this time period. Description, assessment, reasoning, and judgment of the expulsion by British powers as earliest apparent in the work of 19th-century anglophone historians, and in conversation with contemporary metropolitan French historiography. The appearance of Acadian histories of the event around the beginning of the 20th century. Evolving perceptions of the event's breadth and meaning, and the impact of more recent work by scholars and literary figures of Québec and Acadia. -
Husbands and Lovers
Poem from a Lisbon, Maine writer and founder of poetry's BOA Editions. Dedicated to David Plante. Featured in the New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly published by Middlebury College. Republished posthumously in a collection of A. Poulin, Jr's works, "Selected Poems" (2001) -
Awake
Book of poems from Augusta, Maine native and creative writing teacher at North Carolina State University. Contains foreword by Philip Levine. Republished in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon University Press. -
I took my dead father to a Red Sox game
Short fiction piece by Waterville, Maine writer, Ron Currie, Jr., about a trip to Fenway Park with his dead father. Published in the online magazine, "Salon," with reference to the author's recent novel, "Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles" (Viking, 2013). -
David Plante
Radio interview with author David Plante on the occasion of the publication of his novel, "ABC" (Pantheon, 2008). Discussions of Plante's literary engagement with ghosts; with the notions of suffering, belief, and grief; origin and "the ultimate"; and the role of family. Brief discussion of the Providence, Rhode Island Catholic parish cultural milieu of his upbringing. -
The Spice of Popery : Converging Christianities on an Early American Frontier
Exploration of Maine's religious culture and various religious identities in the 17th and early 18th centuries. A study of religious eclecticism in the New England/New France borderland that complicates conventional notions of Christian orthodoxy, or of various Protestant and Catholic peoples and ways of living, in a corner of North America during the Colonial Period. The region's interactions between European Protestant settlers, Wabanaki, and French Catholics; the interplay of their various powers and religious varieties; the birth of hybrid borderland cultures; the solidification of religious identities. Particular emphasis on Catholic/Protestant conflicts in this time period and region. Illustrated with maps, portraits, and black and white photographs. Based on the 2006 dissertation of a similar title. -
The Catholicism of Jack Kerouac
Observations of Jack Kerouac's ethnoreligious background - Franco American and Roman Catholic - and what the author describes as one of three "panels of the survivance triptych" : Catholicism. Historical descriptions of the role and actions of the Roman Catholic Church in historic New France, French Canada, Québec, and later in Franco American communities like Kerouac's Lowell, Massachusetts. Franco Catholicism's Jansenist and Manichean tendencies as rooted in early French North American history. Kerouac's early devotion and later rebellion from Catholic practice, with an ever persistent reflection of and fascincation with select observably Catholic conditions and attitudes, including the themes of guilt and suffering apparent in his recorded life and works. Shades of Catholicism in "Beat Movement" mystical and anti-material mores, and intersections with Kerouac's attentions to Buddhism. Selected revelations of Kerouac's interior life, sexual life, and moral concerns as found in his literature and in select quotation. -
The Ku Klux Klan in the Nashoba Valley, 1840-1933
Article describing nativist, anti-Catholic sentiment in rural Massachusetts's Nashoba Valley in the nineteenth and early twentieth century - including the towns of Shirley, Groton, and Pepperell. Negative local attitudes toward Irish and French Canadian immigrants made explicit in religious and educational contexts in what was an historically, homogeneously Protesant region. Several instances of interreligious tolerance and amicability in the same region. World War I and the regional rise in size and influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Characterizations of the KKK in New England - particularly Massachusetts, and Groton therein - in the first decades of the twentieth century, with select examples of growth, assembly, and violent discrimination.Tags Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fitchburg MA, Groton MA, Irish Americans, Lithuanian Americans, Littleton MA, Massachusetts, Mills and Mill Work, Nashoba Valley MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Pepperell MA, Polish Americans, Religion, Shirley MA, Townsend MA, Violence, West Groton MA -
Inside, Looking Out
Memoir of famed television soap opera writer and playwright, Harding Lemay. From his tumultuous early youth - one of thirteen children - on a New York farm along the Canadian border, to his lonely escape to New York City at the age of 17 and the friends who find him there. His later military training and participation in World War II in Europe. Back to Manhattan to one failed and one successful marriage, and to live and work among books: in libraries, with publishing executives, and finally as a writer. His persistent love of books and struggles with language. -
The Corpse in the Stone Wall : Annie Proulx's Ironic New England
Essay describing Annie Proulx's critical treatment of New England - in particular, Vermont - in her works of fiction, "Postcards" and "Heart Songs." Tenuous and tenacious relationships of characters to their rural New England landscapes at once idyllic and ruinous. The failures of fictional New England locals and tourists alike, and the "cultural politics" that pit outside economic influence and quaint projections of regional identity against the provincial knowledge afforded in home spaces and local tradition. Comparisons of Proulx's "New England fiction" to her later works set in and about Wyoming. -
Postnational United States Regional Hinterlands : Proulx's Ethnic Working-Class Communities in Accordion Crimes
Essay analyzing Annie Proulx's novel, "Accordion Crimes," according to the ethnic groups, working-classes, and cultural identities its characters simultaneously challenge and represent. A mid-1990s United States commentary on assimilation, acculturation, race, and place-identity in which this article's author situates the novel. The symbol of the accordion across cultural and geographic lines, within and across certain immigrant communities in the United States, in environments that temper American myths of upward mobility, and within musical communities of diverse qualities.Tags African Americans, Basque, Cajuns, Chicago IL, Creoles, German Americans, Immigration, Iowa, Italian Americans, Literary Works, Literary Works -- Criticism and History, Louisiana, Maine, Mexican Americans, Minnesota, Montana, Music, Polish Americans, Québec, Sicilian Americans, Viennese Americans, Violence -
Disobedient Ancestors
Personal and historical essay weaving a son's reflections on his Québec-born, rebellious, itinerant father through the changing shape of Catholicism in New France, Lower Canada, and Québec into the 21st century. The persistent grip of a longtime North American family's roots. His father's formative youth and later hatred of clergy, their tenuous relationship, the power of cultural narrative, and the shapes that one's departing quests from them can take. -
Vandal Love
Novel tracing a century of Québec's Hervé family in the United States and Canada, and the genetic conditions that have turned its offspring "alternately [into] brutes or runts" (4). Jude the emigrant boxer in 1960s Georgia and Louisiana, and Isa, his abandoned daughter, into Virginia and Maine. Georgianne and the runt orphaned grandchild, François, from Québec across the Canadian provinces in the middle 20th century; Harvey, his son, and the parental separation that removes one from the other. Harvey's personal spiritual quest across the American Southwest. The tragedy and genealogical loops that unify the characters and their movements through time across North America. -
Soldiers from the Farther North : A Research Note on Canadians in the Union Army in the American Civil War
Article describing the participation of French and English Canadians in the United States Civil War. Justifications for participation - economic, political, personal, and otherwise - from primary and secondary source literature. Domestic Canadian and international implications for Canadian activity in US war. Complications of citizenship and participant moral attitudes toward nationalism, slavery, and other issues. Questions directed toward the complexities surrounding wartime immigration, travel, and/or displacement, and suggestions for further research in family and other archival collections. -
Under Canadian Skies : A French-Canadian Historical Romance
Novel of historical fiction depicting the Rebellion of 1837 in Canada. Philippe Champagne and Edouard Dumas are two young attorneys whose advocacy on behalf of Lower Canada carries them from Montréal to the Québec countryside, and from the Champagne family and their friends to some of the most notable political figures of the period. The spy, Mireau, who unsettles Lower Canada and threatens its rebellion. Shots fired and swordplay between peasant militia and advancing soldiers. Depictions of animosity between English and French Canadians. Written by a Rhode Island author, and introduced with a brief discussion of New England French speakers. -
Continental Drift
Novel following Bob Dubois, a New Hampshire oil burner repairman, and his attempted escape from discontent to a "fresh start" in Florida with his family. Entwined with the story of Vanise, a Haitian emigrant, and the severities she endures with her family along the sea route northward to Florida. -
Loup Garou
Short story narrated by a writer frequently at odds with her spiny and somewhat distant lover on their road trip from Oregon to the East Coast. -
The Angel on the Roof
Collection of previously published and some uncollected short stories, from 1975 to 2000. From the New England-native author of several novels including "Cloudsplitter" and "Continental Drift." Accounts of breaking laws in Katonga, playing hockey in Catamount, moving furniture in Florida hotels, dodging family matters over the telephone, and accidental death. Many stories set in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. -
The Way That Water Enters Stone
Tags Baton Rouge LA, Boston MA, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Family, Florida, Gorham ME, Irish Americans, Lake Winepesaukee NH, Leominster MA, Literary Works, Literary Works -- Fiction, Literary Works -- Short fiction, Louisiana, Lowell MA, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Old Orchard Beach ME, Orono ME, Providence RI, Saco ME, Sanford ME, Scarborough ME, Violence, Worcester MA -
The Anarchist Heart
Volume of poetry from native of Southbridge, Massachusetts and creator of collections "Crying in the Cheap Seats" (1971), "Duhamel" (1986), and the novel "The June Rise" (1994), among other works. Professor in creative writing at Colorado State University. This work is presented in five sections: The Community; Readings; Little Miracles; California; The Anarchist Heart.