Peter N. Moogk

La Nouvelle France : the making of French Canada : a cultural history

On one level, this book is an exploration of the troubled historical relationship that exists between the inhabitants of French and British Canada. At the same time, it is a study of the colonial social institutions, values and experiences that have shaped modern French Canada.

Writing the Cultural History of Pre-1760 European Colonists

Before addressing my subject, I want to recall Alf Heggoy, for whom the prize my book received is named. The French Colonial Historical Society exists, in part, because of Alf’s enthusiasm and energy. He was interested in French colonial policy in Africa during the 1890s, but he welcomed “Old Regimers,” such as me, to the association. As I speak, I have before me the memory of Alf’s compact frame: his round, bearded face and those radiant eyes that grew ever brighter with the ingestion of fermented grape juice.

La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada: A Cultural History@@@The Metamorphoses of Landscape and Community in Early Quebec

French settlers distanced the indigenous people and flora and fauna to create a landscape that by the mid-eighteenth century had become recognizably European. British industrialists and landowners attempted similar appropriations with far less durable results and the area remained a heartland of French-Canadian life, with a sense of cohesive community. This community spirit, rooted in agrarian landscape, was channelled into the developing sense of colonial nationalism of the 1820s and 1830s. Drawing on maps by explorers and surveyors, correspondence documenting the conflict between a backwoods priest and his parishioners, a gentlewomans sketchbook, and the documents of a bitter court case between a seigneurs wife and a local priest, Coates illuminates the development of the region and the social, cultural, and economic ties and tensions within it, providing insights into the often hidden values of a rural community.