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Postface Afestschrift usually sets in relief thé singular contributions of an académie career. In thé case of Jean-Claude Dubé it also pays tribute to lengthy and fruitful pedagogical service to thé community, professional contacts which hâve stimulated nis own achievements and set numerous young académies on thé way to success, and to research and scholarlypublication which are still in full production. This collection of original essays has brought together three major fields of Dubé's scholarly interests and teaching. As a specialist of France of thé Ancien régime, including New France, he has been involved especially with church history, administrative history, and social history particularly as it touched upon family and community.He isequally atease investigating and illuminating thé intimate détails of metropolitan and colonial institutions, influential families and their clientage, and social theory. Dubé's teaching and publication hâve been marked by thé récognition that ail human ideals and institutions hâve been subject to historical change. The colloquium held in his honour, and out of which most of thé papers in this volume originated, illustrated well thé historical school which believes that thé historian is not a detached passive and subjective observer, but an active investigator. The point of departure is always a hypothesis, perhaps even a generalization, and so history is inséparable from theory and methodology. Ail thé revered concepts of historical interprétation may be challenged. Did mercantilism really exist? Was thé extension of French rule into thé interior of North America driven by financial or military objectives? Methodology may include thé approaches of thé genealogist, thé demographer, thé psychoanalyst , and cultural scientists. This scholarship is more concerned 298 CORNELIUS J. JAENEN with thé study of complex social processes —typical récurrences and trends of development in thé Annales tradition —, than in understanding unique situations. Could one go so far as to say that thé questions asked by philosophie historians in thé XVIIIth century hâve once more become relevant? The influence of thé structuralism of thé Annales school is unquestioned, especially in its emphasis on la longue durée, thé long enduring historical structures in thé narration of a chain of events. This broadens thé field of historical investigationtoinclude, for example, material and biological aspects in their cultural context. Hence, such seemingly disparate topics as familial affection, funerary practices, convent life, thé rôle of children, village protest movements, personal piety and religious rebelliousness become important concerns of social history. Historical research, spéculation and debate find expression not only in thé classroom and graduate seminar, but also in académie conférences and publications. Dubé's career included ail of thèse. So, appropriately, a treatise on a noted Parisian publisherfiguredin thé colloquium as well as in thisfestschrift. Dubé's publications are relevant to more than one period of history. Indeed, periodization remains a problem, and as Fernand Braudel pointed out institutions and thé structure of society persist and overlap thé arbitrary subdivisions of time and their appellations assigned by thé historians. The life of human beings in time is a continuum. Dubé was aware of what Marc Bloch described as assigning "wrong labels which eventually deceived us about thé contents." Jean-Claude Dubé's university career has placed him at thé confluence of Ancien régime France and colonial New France, one of thé early sources of Canadian Identity. The University of Ottawa context, bilingual and in thé nation's capital serving primarily Ontario and Québec students, also situated him in thé vortex of Europeanist and Canadianist perspectives, of anglophone and francophone concems. He is, in other words, a scholar of his time. Cornélius J. Jaenen University of Ottawa ...

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