The Historiography of New France, 1960–1974: Jean Hamelin to Louise Dechêne

The Historiography of New France, 1960-1974: Jean Hamelin to Louise Dechene SERGE GAGNON In a recent article, Professor J.R. HexterI has questioned the validity of applying the sociology of knowledge to the study of historians and their craft. His basic premise is that historians can be judged only by their peers, that the society of historians has an exclusive claim to pass judgment on the strengths and weaknesses of its members. In so arguing, Hexter suggests that the attempt to find relationships between historiography and society as a whole has no particular value or relevance - or at least this appears to be implied by his criticism of the ideas of E.H. Carr. Since I, on the other hand, take a great interest in the impact of society on knowledge and vice versa,2 my first reaction to Hexter's views was a negative one. Having overcome this initial response, however , I recognized a possible basis for agreement. History has now acquired the status of a "scientific" activity, the validity of which is comparable to that of any other field of knowledge . It is thus the responsibility of professional historians to determine whether their work represents an accurate analysis and factual account of past societies. In general, such judgments are passed in the book review sections of scholarly journals, or in the evaluations of a jury during a thesis defence. Does the candidate deserve to be a member of the historian's guild? Did he successfully apply the methods and tools of his science? The fact remains, however, that the historian's decision to study one subject as opposed to another reflects, to some degree, a connection between his field of investigation and some aspect of current public thought or opinion.3 Of course, some inquiries into the past bear little, if any, direct relation to the current ideologies of the historian's own society. The influence of climate on crops is a good example of such a study, but social historians usually put very little emphasis 80 on these apparently neutral aspects of life. The work of historians, then, is determined, at least to some degree, by their personality and social environment. Nor does this influence necessarily call into question the excellence of their work as a genuine contribution to knowledge. Would one, for example, condemn a sociologist because in studying the characteristics of underdevelopment he implicitly or explicitly compares the society under observation to the standards of the industrialized world? In so doing, however, the social scientist passes judgment on the values of western culture. To cite a further instance from the field of natural science, it has been revealed by a psychoanalysis of the works of Jean Rostand that his interest in the study of monster frogs was in some way linked with the monsters created by his dramatist father, a possibility which Rostand himself admitted. Would biologists therefore conclude that Rostand is a poor scientist ? In effect, then, the sociology of knowledge and the evaluation of research results are distinct, but not necessarily opposite dimensions of science. It is with these considerations in mind that I shall proceed with the first part of this review of recent historical literature on New France. It is not my intention to cover everything that has been published. Good bibliographies are available in the Canadian Historical Review and, since 1967, in the Revue d'histoire de l'Amerique franraise. I have chosen, instead, to draw the reader's attention to a number of the major debates or conflicting interpretations in the field. To begin with, I will attempt to demonstrate the close connection between debates among historians and the evolution of French Canada in recent years. Secondly, I will examine a new variety of historiography, characterized by the attempt to write a more ''scientific'' history. Contemporary Quebec and its Historians Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the province of Quebec has experienced cultural changes rooted in demography and economics. The migration of rural French Canadians to the industrial cities led ultimately to a decline in the birth rate, thus threatening their survival as a distinct national group. New values gradually Revue d'etudes canadiennes Vol. 13, No...