Denis Vaugeois

Yesterday I had lunch with Denis Vaugeois, the publisher of Septentrion and former minister of culture in the Province of Quebec. I met him at the editorial offices, above his daughter's bookstore in Sillery. Vaugeois is the author of a shelf of different books. In the 1960s and 70s he was part of the separatist movement, and wrote Union of the Two Canadas: a New [English] Conquest?as well as a school textbook on Canadian history emphasizing the Quebecois perspective. More recently he has turned toward history and to books with beautiful color illustrations and design. Some of his publications from Septentrion, such as a lavish coffee-table book about Champlain, an historical atlas The Measure of a Continent (which I reviewed for Common-place). His most recent is a history of The Jews in America, 1760-1860, based upon the Hart family of Montreal. He said the English version will be out in June, and gave me a copy of the French version.

Because of my own nascent research project, I was eager to hear his views of the English conquest of 1759 and the historical legend of Montcalm and Wolfe. Vaugeois explained that the battle on the plains of Abraham was a minor affair that has been enormously exaggerated and mythologized by historians, due to the heroic deaths of its two commanders. Far fewer soldiers died than the historians have claimed. It was less decisive than the battles that preceded it (at Beauport and Montmorency in July 1759) and at Sainte-Foy the following year. Of course, both of those were French victories.

Vaugeois also suggested there is an historiographic divide in Quebec. The "Montreal school" sees the English conquest as a decisive and tragic event for Quebec, while the "Laval school" sees it as less disastrous, and possibly even advantageous for Quebec. Given the American and French revolutions that followed, a speculative history might propose that if the French had held on to Quebec they have been  conquered by the American rebels in 1775, or by the British Navy in the 1790s, or handed over to the Americans by Napoleon as Louisiana was in 1803. (Actually Vaugeois did not mention those scenarios but it got me started thinking about it).

Aside from that comment about the two schools of thought on 1759-63, he was withering in his critique of academic historians, at least at Laval, just a half hour walk from his office. He said they are still ruled by the "annales" school, which maintains that there are no events, and no individuals in history, only processes and epistemes. This is a caricature, but it I have noticed that even as Septentrion publishes lots of history books, few of them are by prominent academic historians from Quebec universities. Many are by independent scholars.

Tomorrow I plan to go to the Salon du Livre at the convention center downtown. I hope to visit booths by French and Quebecois publishers there.