Quebec Books

Our French Canadian Ancestors volume 3 has been an excellent resource series addition to my growing library. This volume covers the history of the church in early Canada/New France. It also included a history of the derivation of French/Canadian names, including 5 categories that many came from. It's always great to be able to find links to my family tree, along with biographical, geographical, social information about the times, occupations and location of my ancestors. Don't miss it.

This is a delightful and informative book on the first round of the movement for an independent Quebec. The razer-thin margin of victory on October 30, 1995 of the opposition to an independent Quebec has most assuredly meant there will be another vote on the subject in the near future. Accordingly, the subject matter of this book will take on even more importance and cogency as time passes.

The referendum held on October 30, 1995 was actually the second referendum held in the province on the question of independence. The first was held on May 20, 1980. The defeat of the movement for independence in that first rederendum marked the end of an era--the first upsurge of the Quebec independence movement. Graham Fraser's book tells the story of that era.

Fraser begins with environment of disenchantment that had been felt by the French-speaking public of the province which resulted in the split in the Liberal party of the province of Quebec. Then on July 24, 1967, President de Gaulle of France came to Canada on an official visit to Montreal's Expo 67 and during a speech from the Montreal City Hall shouted "Long-live Free Quebec" in French. That statement caused a scandal in world diplomatic circles, but in Quebec it electrified the French-speaking public and set them on a course toward independent nationhood.

In 1968, the political party called Parti Quebecois (or P.Q.) was formed and began running candidates for the provincial legislature on the platform of an independent nationhood for Quebec. Rene Levesque was elected President of the P.Q. and became head of the legislative delegation of the party as the P.Q. began to pick up a number of seats in the succeeding elections. In 1976, the P.Q. became the majority party in the Quebec legislature and Rene Levesque became premier of the province of Quebec.

The major portion of the book then deals with the rule of the P.Q. in Quebec through the defeat of the referendum in 1980 and the internal stresses and dissentions within the P.Q. that followed as the P.Q. sought to keep Quebec nationhood as a live issue on the political scene. The book ends with the P.Q. still in power in Quebec in 1985. In order to understand the second upsurge of the movement for an independent Quebec which began in 1990 and led to the most recent 1995 referendum and most certainly will lead to a third referendum on Quebec independence, it is necessary to understand the roots of the movement. This book provides that understanding in a clear and inciseful way.

I would recommend this book to anybody that has/is studying French and would like to get to know the Québécois variation. The book is divided into sections (Nature, Sports, School, Misc, et). Not only does it give you the Québécois variation, but also that of from France! In the end of the book there is a grammar and prononciation section. Again, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Québec :)

As a teenager during the 1950s, Harvey Weinstein watched his once vibrant and successful father sink further into mental illness, despite treatment by one of America's preeminent psychiatrists - Dr. Ewen Cameron. It was more than 20 years later that Dr. Weinstein realized what had actually happened to his father, while reading an article about secret mind-control projects funded by the U.S. Central Ineligence Agency.

These research experiments had been conducted between 1957 and 1960 at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal under the direction of Dr. Ewen Cameron - the same time period and place that Dr. Weinstein's father, Lou, was being treated for anxiety by the world-renowned psychiatrist. This program (really mind-control experiments) was funded by the CIA and the Canadian government, and was carried out by Dr. Ewen Cameron without the knowledge of the patients or their families.

In Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control, Dr. Weinstein chronicles how he spent eight years fighting to help obtain justice for his father, who, along with eight other Canadians, was suing the CIA for negligence in its sponsorship of Cameron's experiments. That program included lengthy periods of multiple electroshocks, hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, prolonged sensory deprivation, forced sleep, induced insulin comas, and psychic driving - an attempt to alter behavior by forcing patients to listen to taped messages over and over again. In his book, Dr. Weinstein describes his feelings of horror and helplessness while watching his father's health and personality be destroyed as he underwent Dr. Cameron's experimental protocol.

Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control is Harvey Weinstein's personal account of the events at the Allan Memorial Insitute. A gripping chronicle of a medical scandal of horrific proportions, this book is also a story of government misconduct, deceit, and cover-ups. Dr. Weinstein further raises questions about the vunerability of contemporary medicine to the abuse of patients in the context of repeated episodes of ethical transgressions during this century. And it is a deeply moving tale of a man and a family who were left ravaged from the suffering inflicted upon them.
--- from book's dustjacket

If you didn't know about Taschereau, but wanted to understand Quebec politics in the first half of the last century, Vigod brings the dynamics of Quebec politics during this period to life. The great figures of the day and the relationships between them make for a compelling narrative.

The three writers of the journal were agents sent by the British governor of Quebec, Sir Guy Carleton, to travel among the surrounding parishes and missions to find out who had lent support to the American troops in their invasion of Canada during the Revolutionary War. The Americans knew that they had support among some of the French-Canadian "habitants" (i. e., peasants). Though this support turned out not to be widespread or effective enough to help the Americans to victory, Carleton wanted to weed the supporters out of the local militias. In their journal, Baby and the others reported parish by parish the actions they took against individuals posing a threat to British control of Canada and the reasons for this. Some militia men performed military duties such as standing guard for the invading rebel forces; others encouraged support for them; and others offered them food or transpiration. Carleton's punitive measures were mild, dismissal from the militia in most cases; but they were effective in virtually eliminating what support there was for the Americans among the French-Canadian peasants. The journal is an important historical document first published in the 1920s.

In 1981 while I was attending a French Immersion Program at Laval University in Quebec, I came across this book at the campus library. I read the book in one sitting, finding it to be well written and fast paced. After a recent vacation in Quebec, I decided to order the book to read again. Although it took two sittings to read it a second time, I found it to be just as good as the first time. Furthermore, the latest edition with additional maps, diagrams, pictures and comment by Donald Graves makes it even more informative and descriptive. This book is highly recomended for a thoughtful and informed knowledge of the events in Quebec in 1759.

This map is protected by the plastic mold so you don't need to worry that the map would be broken quickly.

In this book, Demers has done a superb job at condensing the struggle of the Quebecois into a form that is easily readable for even those with no knowledge of the current battle between the Federalists and Separatists in Quebec. This book gives a keen insight into the mind of the Quebecois "person on the street" through Demers's use of personal interviews. The changes which have occurred in the Catholic Church in Quebec are also shown through the author's personal experience and through research into the religious and political history of the Church in Quebec. All things considered, this book is an excellent read for those either familiar or unfamiliar with the situation in Quebec.

Outstanding book. Ties together much of the story of Acadian History from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and Madawaska, and the ultimate determination of the US-Canadian Border through the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842. Provides a geographic and strategic foundation for political decisions.