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Discours du président/Presidential Address : L’Autre en Nouvelle-France/The Other in Early Canada

Cornelius J. Jaenen
AbstractThe traditional European concept of the “other” has been applied to aboriginal peoples, but in terms of historic habitation of the Americas it could properly be applied to the newcomers. The vision Amerindians had of French intruders was not flattering and calls into question assumptions about the superiority of European character, culture, and technology. Native responses, especially on the part of women, to French-Catholic missionary efforts illustrate the cultural and spiritual vitality of Amerindian societies. Just as there was only selective adoption of European material culture, so there was prudent consideration of spiritual values and beliefs.

Évolution de l’alphabétisation (masculine) au Saguenay : les variables géographiques, 1842-1971

Gérard Bouchard
AbstractThis article presents some results of a study of the evolution of male literacy in the Saguenay region of Quebec between 1842 and 1971. It describes the influence of several factors, such as the size and age of the municipality, geographic mobility, and regional origin. This analysis is based on a new index for literacy, employed here for the first time, a description of which opens the article.

Quatre-Vingt-Neuf Revisited: Social Interests and Political Conflict in the French Revolution

George C. Comninel
AbstractFifty years after its publication, Quatre-Vingt-Neuf — Georges Lefebvre's classic statement of the social interpretation of the French Revolution — is widely thought to have been discredited. Revisionist historians have effectively challenged the idea that the bourgeoisie was a revolutionary capitalist class overthrowing feudalism, and this has been taken to repudiate both Lefebvre's interpretation and Marxist history generally.Yet the new revisionist orthodoxy has been unable to provide a credible alternative account of the origins and course of the Revolution. A “new” social interpretation is therefore suggested which, ironically, is very close to that originally offered by Lefebvre for, while the idea of a bourgeois-capitalist class revolution clearly is refuted by the historical evidence, a return to Quatre-Vingt-Neuf reveals that this concept did not play a central role in Lefebvre's account. Nor is it integral to Marx's historical materialist method of analysis. Indeed, a fresh historical materialist class analysis of the ancien régime supports a very different social interpretation than that of “bourgeois revolution,” one largely consistent with Lefebvre's interpretation of the complex but integral social revolution unleashed in 1789.

Les caisses populaires acadiennes du Nouveau-Brunswick : genèse et développement, 1930‑1950

Jean Daigle
AbstractSeveral factors and groups influenced, in different but complementary ways, the spread of the cooperative movement among the Acadians of New Brunswick. Certainly one of the most important causes was the clear necessity for social reconstruction in the aftermath of the upheavals caused by world-wide economic dislocation during the first decade of the twentieth century. The local élite — the clergy and those specially trained in agriculture — also sought to ameliorate the most obvious social ills by supporting programmes of adult education. The growth of study groups and the participation of a large number of persons in them bore witness to the success achieved by the idea's promoters.The existence of religious organizations, such as the ACJC, the “Association catholique de la jeunesse canadienne,” and the discreet efforts of the leadership of the “Ordre de Jacques-Cartier” encouraged the spread of cooperativism. The minority status of the Acadians within New Brunswick also helps to explain the popularity of the movement, for cooperation appeared to be a strategy which would allow Acadians to control a hitherto-neglected aspect of their lives, their economic condition. Farmers and fishermen alike could therefore adjust over time to new economic circumstances.

La genèse d’une communauté canadienne-française en Nouvelle-Angleterre : Lewiston, Maine, 1800-1880

Yves Frenette
AbstractThis article examines the emergence of a French-Canadian community in New England, that of Lewiston, Maine, before 1880. It first describes the area before the arrival of the initial French Canadians in I860, focusing especially on those changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution, which transformed Lewiston into one of the most important centres of textile production in the United States. It proceeds to explain the character of the in-migration in the nineteenth century, and focuses on the central role played by the immediate and extended family. In fact, the family unit was central to the emerging ethnic community. The family economy was founded on the nuclear household, and a closely knit and complex web of relationships was woven among family members and between them and the cotton manufacturers. Family lies also played economic, social, and psychological roles within the community, easing the transition of new arrivals into an often precarious economic situation. From this group of rural-workers-turned- labourers emerged the petite-bourgeoisie of businessmen, professionals, and priests. These men would use their community influence to strengthen the religious sentiments of their fellow Catholics, in an attempt to instill in them the ideology of cultural survival. Some set themselves at a distance from the vast majority of the migrants, whereas others — notably the curé and the professional élite — would work towards the establishment of an institutional support network centred on the parish. This element would help to establish this ethnic group solidly within the roader social framework and would contibute towards the transformation of these French-Canadian migrants into an identifiable immigrant community.

Drame collectif et mise en texte : l’exemple de la peste marseillaise de 1720

Pierre Grégoire
AbstractThis paper explores the structuring role of a schema of drama/hero, and of some of the consistent elements in the majority of the narratives written about the Marseilles plague between 1720 and the present. Firstly, it attempts to demonstrate that the actual story of the plague was framed in terms of a series of themes which were never, in general, deviated from: the re-establishment of levels of morality in behaviour (good/evil or cowardly/heroic); a condescending and anachronistic handling of traditional knowledge about plague in general; attention to the dramatic build-up of information; and an insistence on the supposedly heroic role of certain leaders. Secondly, the study analyses two contemporary versions of the events of 1720, placing them in the context of the emerging narration. Beyond the nuances and complexities that characterise these two tales, they illustrate the contemporary political importance in identifying the real heros, whose actions might be considered as curing the evil within a society disorganised by the plague. Doubtless because it was not seen within a broader cultural and historical context, this dramatic/heroic schema could, over the long term, serve principally as a way of contextualising the Marseilles plague of 1720, an event which still, by its horrific character, continues to traumatise an entire society.

The De-Greening of the Irish : Toronto’s Irish‑Catholic Press, Imperialism, and the Forging of a New Identity, 1887-1914

Mark G. McGowan
AbstractTraditionally Canadian and American historians have assumed thai Irish Catholics in urban centres constituted highly resistant subcultures in the face of a dominantProtestant majority. In Canada, scholars have stated that these Irish-Catholic subcultures kept themselves isolated, socially and religiously, from the Anglo- Protestant society around them. Between 1890 and 1918, however, the Irish Catholics of Toronto underwent significant social, ideological, and economic changes that hastened their integration into Toronto society. By World War One, Irish Catholics were dispersed in all of Toronto's neighbourhoods; they permeated the city's occupational structure at all levels; and they intermarried with Protestants at an unprecedented rate. These changes were greatly influenced by Canadian-born generations of Irish-Catholic clergy and laity.This paper argues that these social, ideological, and emotional realignments were confirmed and articulated most clearly in the city's Catholic press. Editors drew up new lines of loyally for Catholics and embraced the notion of an autonomous Canadian nation within the British Empire. What developed was a sense of English-speaking Catholic Canadian identity which included a love of the British Crown, allegiance to the Empire, and a duty to participate in Canadian nation-building. In the process, a sense of Irish identity declined as new generations of Catholics chose to contextualize their Catholicism in a Canadian cultural milieu. The press expressed a variant of the imperial-nationalist theme, which blended devout Catholicism with a theory of imperial “interdependence.” This maturation of a new identity facilitated Catholic participation in the First World War and underscored an English-speaking Catholic effort to evangelize and anglicize “new” Catholic Canadians. By the end of the war, Toronto's Irish Catholics were imbued with zealous Canadian patriotism, complemented, in part, by their greater social integration into the city's mainstream.

La diversité des aménagements fonciers dans la vallée du Saint-Laurent au XVIIIe siècle

Jacques Mathieu and Alain Laberge
AbstractFrom the “aveux et dénombrements” produced between 1723 and 1745, the study of land occupation in the valley of the Saint Lawrence during the eighteenth century reveals a considerable diversity in agrarian structures and land development. An exhaustive analysis shows that land settlement — in terms of spacial distribution, dimensions, intensities of use, and modes of development — does not add up to a simple and uniform reality. There can be no all-encompassing explanation for the nature of the Laurenlian rural landscape in the eighteenth century. Far from being incoherent, the observed variety requires us to examine the different choices as a reflection of the habitants' sensibilities to their environment, with the objective of defining more clearly the pattern of land settlement of that period.

Merchant Credit and the Informal Economy : Newfoundland, 1919-1929

Rosemary E. Ommer
AbstractMerchant credit systems and household production have usually been examined historically as two distinct entities which either bore no relationship to one another or else operated in opposition. This paper proposes instead that there has existed a somewhat unequal symbiosis between these two economic systems, not only in the early of settlement when labour was scarce, but also under conditions of abundant labour. It further suggests that merchant credit can fruitfully be regarded as the forerunner of state welfare systems insofar as both have provided the start-up capital for informal economies which, in their turn, then operate as an essential safety net for people living in marginal economies.

The Blakeney Government and the Settlement of Treaty Indian Land Entitlements in Saskatchewan, 1975-1982

James M. Pitsula
AbstractBetween 1975 and 1982 a concerted effort was wade to fulfil treaty Indian land entitlements in Saskatchewan. The provincial NDP government led by the Hon. A.E. Blakeney proposed the “Saskatchewan formula” as the basis for a settlement. The process of settling entitlements was a complex one, but a close analysis of the federal-provincial negotiations suggests that most of the responsibility for the lack of progress belongs to the federal government. The flexible approach taken by the Saskatchewan government, who interpreted land entitlements in the context of the “spirit and intent” of the treaties, collided with the relatively inflexible approach of the federal Office of Native Claims, who were wedded to the concept of “lawful obligation.” When the problem was delayed in its solution, various groups had time to mount opposition to the proposed settlement. Consequently, a great opportunity was missed to achieve a major breakthrough and bring about an easing of tensions between Indians and non-Indians in Canada.

The Divorce Court and the Queen’s/King’s Proctor: Legal Patriarchy and the Sanctity of Marriage in England, 1861‑1937

Gail L. Savage
AbstractThe office of H M Proctor, a curious aspect of English divorce procedure, investigated divorce cases based on collusion between the spouses and divorce cases brought by spouses whose own misconduct disqualified them from the right to divorce. On the basis of evidence provided by the proctor's intervention into divorce suits, the divorce court had the power to rescind divorce decrees improperly obtained. This essay describes the origins of this legal institution and delineates its impact on divorce during the Victorian period. The analysis considers the growing criticism of the proctor's powers during the first four decades of the twentieth century. English divorce law was originally intended to buttress both the power of the husband within the marital relationship and the power of the state over the family. The changing view of the proctor over seventy-five years reveals the tensions inherent in Victorian gender ideology and reflects changing attitudes towards the nature of marriage.

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