Le Québec et ses historiens de 1840 à 1920 : La Nouvelle France de Garneau à Groulx

by Serge Gagnon

Après une analyse du récit historique établi par le clergé et la petite bourgeoisie québécoise, depuis l'échec de la rébellion jusqu'au terme d'une phase décisive d'industrialisation et d'urbanisation, l'ouvrage met en lumière les rapports entre l'évolution sociale et le type de "mémoire collective" laquelle ont œuvre les historiens-amateurs de François-Xavier Garneau Lionel Groulx. Le conservatisme du récit est déterminé, selon l'auteur, par trois facteurs principaux : la situation "coloniale" des Franco-Québécois, la prédominance d'historiens-prêtres et l'industrialisation du Québec. Ouvrage solidement document.

474 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is another book by the same title that focuses on the twentieth century (Ouellette and others). I read that book first. This is also interesting, especially for the secular historian Garneau. Saw his statue in front of the Parliament. Also, there is a sign of the Garneau bookstore opposite the Anglican Church in Old Quebec close to the 1640 Bistro. By 1950, the ratio of a nun to population was 1 per 111!

Garneau rightly argues, in my opinion, that France could have benefitted by shipping h
Protestants to New France, that way the money and tech secret would have remained with France instead of expelling them.

Abbe Ferland acknowledged aggressive native nationalism as an appropriate response to dispossession, which was very much ahead of his time.

Sulte is very open when he says that the key motive of Cartier, Francis 1 was not the spread of the Gospel but profit!

Overall much of the logic is similar to the structuralist thinking in international development such as the core-periphery model.

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book from a store in Kingston. The last 50% of the book is pretty much bashing of Ouellet; in some cases, it makes sense from a methodological point of view. Key question: why did Quebec not grow post-1759- where was the business class?

There was the Montreal and Quebec school. Montreal school thought post-conquest Quebec was catastrophic and cut from its mother country, France, and did not get infant industry protection. Trudel and Ouellet argued that Quebec's economy was moribund and weak, and conquest was a mere correlation. I did not know 1837/38; there was a revolt.

Faith was a priority for Champlain, then language. The book discusses the Clerico-conservative concept in which national destiny was based on spiritual integrity and the furtherance of missionary work. That's why the Roman church aligned with the UK after the French Revolution - preferred opposing religious monarchy over republican France. Now I am interested to read Trudel and Ouellet.