American Perspectives on La fièvre aux États-Unis, 1860–1930 : A Historiographical analysis of Recent Writings on the Franco-Americans in New England

Abstract

Se pourrait-il que le faux renouveau des années 1970 n’ait été que le présage d’un vrai renouveau, lequel sera vécu dans les décennies à venir? – Armand Chartier, Les Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, 1991.The great French Canadian migrations of the latter half of the nineteenth century and the subsequent survival of Franco-American descendants have long fasci­nated scholars. Carroll Wright’s study of the French immigration across the bor­der, The Canadian French in New England, circulated in the New England region as early as 1882. . The Franco-American community of New England has since been the object of numerous studies. French Canadian scholars in particular have devoted much attention to the study of la Franco-Américanie, undoubtedly because the “grande hémorragie” was a traumatic episode in their history.1 Immigration figures tell the story of a massive exodus from French Canada: recent estimates show that over 600, 000 French Canadians, out of a population of 1.5 million, left their homeland in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Their Franco-American descendants number over three million in the New England states (Chartier 383).