Witnesses to Modern Quebec: Memoirs as an Historical Genre

Oldest Profession: Spies and Spying in the Twentieth Century (New York: Norton, 1986). 13. Andrew, Secret Service, pp. 162-63. 14. The phrase comes from Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est." 15. Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell, Tug ofWar: the Battle for Italy: I943-45 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1986); W. Denis Whitaker and Shelagh Whitaker, Tug ofWar: the Canadian Victory That Opened Antwerp (Toronto: Stoddart, 1984). 16. Graham and Bidwell, Tug of War: Italy, p. 263. STUART ROBSON Trent University Witnesses to Modern Quebec: Memoirs as an Historical Genre I.ES APOSTASIES. TOME/, I.ES COQS DE V/LJ.AGE. Jean-Louis Gagnon. Montreal: La Presse, 1985. SOUVENANCES 1. Georges-Henri Levesque. Montreal: Les Editions La Presse, 1983. MEMOIRS. Rene Levesque. Trans. Philip Stratford. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986. (Memoires. Montreal: Editions Quebec/Amerique, 1986) L'ART DE L1MPOSSIBLE: LA DIPLOMATIE QUEBECOISE DEPUIS 19(j(). Claude Morin. Montreal: Boreal, 1987. LES ANNEES D1MPATIENCE 19501960 . Gerard Pelletier. Montreal: Stanke, 1983. (English translation by Alan Brown, Years of Impatience, 1950-19(j(). Toronto: Methuen, 1985) LE TEMPS DES CHOIX 19()0-1968. Gerard Pelletier. Montreal: Stanke, 1986. (English translation by Alan Brown, Years of Choice: 19(j()-1968. Toronto: Methuen, 1987) 152 During the past four decades Quebecers have witnessed a remarkable generation of social animators, intellec-tuals , journalists, and politicians at work debating and, in many cases, changing the values and institutions of contemporary Quebec and Canada. A solid indication that a remarkable era is now coming to a close is the appearance of autobiographical accounts from a handful of the leading activists. At worst, memoirs can be very disappointing when they verge on halo polishing, that is, secular hagiography. At their very best, they can provide illuminating insights into people and events that are often overlooked by more analytic assessors. The memoirs reviewed here fall somewhere between these two extremes. While individual style varies widely, these memoirs, reflecting the traditional classical training oftheir authors, are all written in lucid and colourful prose. It is apparent that th.ese memoirs were written for very different reasons. Some ofthe authors, driven by their love of literature and intellectual debate, succeed admirably in elucidating a particular period by commenting on major intellectual personalities and socio-political developments. These writers tend to shed very little light on themselves. Others, by contrast, are primarily concerned with settling old political scores, and thereby provide a highly personal perspective on events and personalities. They tend to restate clearly and unambiguously their original role in events or debates. Somewhat pretentiously, they contend that, by setting the record straight, their careers will serve as positive examples for those who follow. Overall, these memoirs can be as important for what is left unsaid as for what is revealed about their respective authors and those with whom they either fought or collaborated. While memoirs constitute illuminating grist for the historian's mill by allowing authors to clarify their respective roles and ideological assumptions, they must be approached with a critical eye keen to discern the merely self-serving from what helps to explain the past. Memoirs, Revue detudes canadiennes Vol. 22, No. 4 (Hiver 1987-88 Winter) in short, constitute another challenge to those who pursue the Muse of Clio. They often serve to spark an historian's interest in a particular aspect of our past and in this way serve as a handmaiden to the reconstitution of that past. One of the earliest and often forgotten precursors of Quebec's "revolution of mentalities" was Georges-Henri Levesque, a Dominican priest, founder and director of Laval's Faculty of Social Sciences from 1937 to 1955. In Souvenances 1 Father Levesque provides a candid and enlightening account of his life up to 1943. Indeed, these memoirs reveal a man of rare human qualities, a man committed to serve his community through the dissemination of the ideology of Catholic liberalism and possessing a powerful determination to put this ideology into action despite the strong opposition of reactionary forces inside and outside the Church. In choosing the Dominican order, Father Levesque became a disciple of the Catholic liberalism of Lacordaire, Lammenais and Montalembert . Educated in France and Belgium in the early 1930s, he...