Franco-American Studies Resource Guide

Civics

NA

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Thank you Georgette: My 26 years in the Legislature

Print

Primary

At a time when few women served in statewide and national offices, women like Bérubé challenged local and state Party Machines. In her memoirs and speeches, Georgette Bérubé provides an insider's view of Maine politics. Serving in both the Maine House and Senate from 1970 to 2000, Georgette Bérubé has more state legislative service than another other woman in Maine's history. In 1982, she was a candidate for Governor of Maine. For many years she also hosted a weekly French radio program in central Maine.

1970-79

Androscoggin

Civics

NA

High School (9-12)

This Splendid Game: Maine Campaigns and Elections 1940-2002

Print

Secondary

Professor Potholm has been studying Franco-Americans in politics for 20 years.  Here he offers a history of Maine politics.

Various/All

Various/All

Civics

NA

High School (9-12)

Le maire est la femme (Alan Casavant)

Print

Secondary

Article looks at the role of ethnicity and gender in city politics (Biddeford)

1990-99

York

Civics

French in North America

High School (9-12)

"Frenchie" confronts critics (with links to related articles)

Print

Primary

Kennebec Journal article about a panel discussion of the 1993 controversy over WBLM radio personality, "Frenchie," and his ethnically driven humor. The article talks about Frenchie's radio work, the sentiments of some of its dissidents, and the involvement of the Maine Human Rights Commission.

1990-99

Cumberland

Civics

French in North America

High School (9-12)

Calumet Club faces rights hearing (with links to related articles)

Print

Primary

1989 Kennebec Journal article about a Readfield, Maine woman who was denied membership at Le Club Calumet - a Franco American social club - and appealed to the Maine Human Rights Commission on account of discrimination. This article is the first of many articles, editorials, and letters to the editor covering this social and legal controversy to its climax in a 1992 decision in the Maine Supreme Court.

1990-99

Kennebec

Civics

NA

High School (9-12)

La presse chez les Franco-Américains

Print

Secondary

Dr. Paul P. Chasse shares a collection of French language newspaper headlines and articles from New England periodicals of old, introducing us to the wide variety of Franco American print media in the 19th and 20th centuries.

1920-1949

Various/All

Economics

History

High School (9-12)

Working-Class Americanism: The Politics of Labor in a Textile City, 1914-1960

Print

Secondary

Historian Gary Gerstle's study of textile mills, politics, and the rise of labor unions in Woonsocket, Rhode Island between both World Wars.

1920-1949

Various/All

Economics

History

Roughing the Uppers

Digital Media

Secondary

Documentary by Robert Branham and Bates College students about CIO shoe strike in Lewiston and Auburn, Maine.  Includes interviews with shoe workers, labor activists and mill owners

1920-1949

Androscoggin

Economics

NA

High School (9-12)

Backwoods consumers and homespun capitalists : the rise of a market culture in eastern Canada

Print

NA

Study of Madawaska region; primary theme is rural people and development of markets

Pre-1860

Aroostook

Economics

History

High School (9-12)

A Shoemaker's Story: Being chiefly about French Canadian immigrants, enterprising photographers, rascal Yankees, and Chinese cobblers in a nineteenth-century factory town

Print

Secondary

A history of photography, shoemaking, mining, and immigration as they converged on North Adams, Massachusetts in the 1870s.

1860-1920

Various/All

Economics

History

High School (9-12)

Shared Earnings, Unequal Responsibilities: Single French-Canadian Wage-Earning Women in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1900-1920

Print

Secondary

An analysis of single Franco American women workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, Yukari Takai's piece attempts to show the contributions of women to their households and to the local economy at the beginning of the twentieth century.

1860-1920

Various/All

Economics

History

High School (9-12)

I've Never Dreamed It Was Necessary to Marry!': Women and Work in New England French Canadian Communities, 1870-1930

Print

Secondary

Florence Mae Waldron's article on women's labor in New England Franco American communities at the turn of the century.

1860-1920

Various/All

Economics

NA

High School (9-12)

The Run of the Mill: A Pictorial Narrative of the Expansion, Dominion, Decline, and Enduring Impact of the New England Textile Industry

Print

Secondary

Steve Dunwell uses black and white photographs to put a face on the past and present of the New England textile mill. Historical and modern perspectives on mills, industrial towns, workers, and their impact on New England from the beginning of the Industrial Era to the 1970s.

Various/All

York

English Language Arts

French in North America

High School (9-12)

Little Eater of Bleeding Hearts

Print

Primary

A creative work by Biddeford, Maine, author Normand Beaupré about growing up in a Franco-American enclave.

1920-1949

Various/All

English Language Arts

French in North America

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Visions of Gerard

Print

Primary

Jack Kerouac's novel based on his brother, Gerard, whose angelic personality, illness, and death at a young age held a lasting effect on Kerouac and his writing

1960-69

Various/All

English Language Arts

French in North America

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

The Town and the City

Print

Primary

Jack Kerouac's first major novel introduces us to all ten members of the Martin family of Galloway, Massachusetts, and forms the foundation to Kerouac's lifelong series of autobiographical fiction based on impressions of his hometown of Lowell.

1920-1949

Various/All

English Language Arts

NA

High School (9-12)

Loving the Dead

Print

Primary

Short story on price and advantages of assimilation

2000-10

Kennebec

English Language Arts

French in North America

High School (9-12)

Wednesday's Child

Print

Primary

Rhea Cote-Robbins's award-winning memoir about growing up in a Franco American community, "down the Plains" in Waterville, Maine.

1960-69

Kennebec

English Language Arts

NA

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

The Chocolate War

Print

Primary

In Robert Cormier's most famous young adult novel, a student's refusal to obey the commands of a secret society of his peers shows us firsthand about the struggles of peer pressure and the search for adolescent identity.

1970-79

Various/All

English Language Arts

NA

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Fade

Print

Primary

Teen novel; Set in ficticious Franco American community; about a young boy who inherits the power to become invisible.

1920-1949

Various/All

English Language Arts

French in North America

High School (9-12)

French Class

Print

Primary

These poems and essays from Susan April, Paul Brouillette, Paul Marion, and Mary Louise St. Onge aim to interpret Franco American cultural heritage in the modern world.

1980-89

Various/All

English Language Arts

French in North America

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Lives in Translation

Print

Primary

In this 1991 anthology, Denis Ledoux places together the poetry and short fiction of thirteen writers in an effort to illustrate the range of contemporary Franco American artistic voices.

1980-89

Various/All

English Language Arts

NA

High School (9-12)

The Francoeur Trilogy (The Family, The Woods, The Country)

Click Here (1)

Click Here (2)

Click Here (3)

Print

Primary

Three novels about growing up in a Franco-American family

1970-79

Various/All

English Language Arts

NA

All

Papa Martel

Print

Primary

This ten-part novel chronicles the Franco-American Martel family in the fictional town of Groveton, Maine, heavily based on the author's hometown of Lewiston.

1950-59

Androscoggin

English Language Arts

NA

All

Of Kings and Fools

Print

Primary

Collection of Franco-American folktales, introduced by the storytellers

1990-99

Various/All

French in North America

NA

High School (9-12)

Steeples and Smokestacks: The Franco-American Experience in New England

Print

Secondary

Collection of essays on the two poles of Franco-American life in New England: the church and the factory

Various/All

Various/All

French in North America

NA

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Réveil…Waking Up French

Digital Media

Primary

Ben Levine's documentary film about Franco American language and culture in New England, and certain individuals' attempts at reinvigorating New England French heritage.

2000-10

Various/All

French in North America

NA

High School (9-12)

Franco-American Language Maintenance Efforts in New England: Realities and Issues

Secondary

Don Dugas's essay introduces us to the variety of New England French media in 1974, and places these language-learning tools in the immigrant, ethnic, psychological, and religious contexts of Franco American history.

1970-79

Various/All

French in North America

NA

High School (9-12)

Where French Is Not A Foreign Language: Franco-Americans and the State and University of Maine

Print

Secondary

Professor Robert Carroll's article on the rise and decline of French academic programs and French language media in Maine. Carroll's analysis includes tables with French heritage population data from Maine counties and towns.

1980-89

Various/All

French in North America

NA

All

Acadian Culture in Maine

Digital Media

Secondary

Covers many areas of French life in the valley

Various/All

Various/All

French in North America

NA

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Chez Nous

Print

Secondary

A book written to accompany a 1982 Maine State Museum exhibit dedicated to the St. John Valley, Aroostook County, Maine

1980-89

Various/All

Geography

NA

High School (9-12)

Atlas historique du Québec. Population et territoire (Courville)

Print

NA

Collection of essays and maps concerning the population of Quebec. Yves Roby discusses the huge migration from Québec to the US —  some 900 000  people between 1840 and 1930

1860-1920

Various/All

Geography

NA

High School (9-12)

French America: Mobility, Identity, and Minority Experience across the Continent

Print

Secondary

Collection of essays in the social sciences about the French populations of North America. Translated and updated version of "Du continent perdu a l'archipel retrouve…"

Various/All

Various/All

Geography

History

High School (9-12)

Migration Fields of French Canadian Immigrants to Southern Maine

Print

Secondary

This article retraces the migrations of French Canadians in Central and Southern Maine to their precise places of departure in Quebec. Includes maps that illustrate migration fields and indicate concentrations of Maine Franco Americans.

1860-1920

Various/All

Geography

History

High School (9-12)

Franco-Americans in Maine: A Geographical Perspective

Print

Secondary

James Paul Allen's article on the geography of Franco American communities in Maine in the 20th century.

1920-1949

Various/All

Geography

NA

High School (9-12)

Maps of Quebec

Website

Primary

Website offers links to maps, including maps related to the migration of French Canadians to the US

2010-19

Various/All

Geography

History

High School (9-12)

The Acadian Migrations

Print

Secondary

Geographer Robert LeBlanc's concise account of the deportation of Acadian people between 1750 and 1800 and their relocation in North America and abroad.

Pre-1860

Aroostook

Geography

History

High School (9-12)

Crossing the 49th Parallel: Migration from Canada to the United States, 1900-1930

Print

Secondary

Bruno Ramirez's study of the migration of French and English Canadians between Canada and the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, with an analysis based on border records, government documents, and other primary sources.

1860-1920

Various/All

History

NA

High School (9-12)

Franco-American Life and Culture in Manchester, New Hampshire: Vivre la différence

Print

Secondary

Author Robert B. Perreault has published six books and over 150 articles, essays, and short stories themed around the Franco-American experience in the Northeast. This history provides a reader-friendly portrait of a bilingual, bicultural community for whom the French presence in North America in general and in New Hampshire in particular is a lived experience.

Various/All

Various/All

History

Economics

High School (9-12)

Amoskeag: Life and Work in an American Factory-City

Print

Secondary

Authors Tamara K. Hareven and Randolph Langenbach chronicle work and industrialization in the world's largest textile mill. Text includes transcriptions of oral interviews

Various/All

Various/All

History

French in North America

High School (9-12)

The French-Canadian Heritage in New England

Print

Secondary

A comprehensive study informed by author Gérard-J. Brault's own family of growing up Franco-American.

Various/All

Various/All

History

World Languages

High School (9-12)

Un théâtre francophone dans un milieu franco-américain

Print

Secondary

A little known history of amateur Francophone theater in Massachusetts's Pioneer Valley by native son Ernest Guillet

1920-1949

Various/All

History

NA

High School (9-12)

The Franco-Americans of New England: Dreams and Realities

Print

Secondary

History of Franco-American New England with a focus on the struggle over language; augmented by historical photographs

Various/All

Various/All

History

NA

High School (9-12)

Les Francophones de la Nouvelle Angleterre: 1524-2000

Print

Secondary

Historian Yves Frenette's chronicle of six centuries of French on New England soil

Various/All

Various/All

History

Economics

Middle (6-8) & High School (9-12)

Acadian Hard Times

Print

Secondary

Historian C. Stewart Doty revisits the farmers, farm families, and rural landscapes of Maine's St. John River Valley captured in the 1940s photography of Jack Delano and the Federal Farm Security Administration. Doty's pictoral history comes full circle as he reconnects over 50 years later with the people and places of Delano's photographs.

1920-1949

Aroostook

History

Geography

High School (9-12)

Expulsion: The Story of Acadia

Digital Media

Secondary

Documentary on the birth, development, demise, and renovation of Acadia - from France, to Nova Scotia, to Louisiana, and back again. Includes interviews with historians, archaeologists, and genealogists, as well as dramatic reenactments of 17th century Acadian life and le Grand Dérangement (the Great Upheavel) of 1755.

Pre-1860

Various/All

History

NA

High School (9-12)

A Great and Noble Scheme

Print

Secondary

History of the Deportation for an American audience

Pre-1860

Various/All

History

World Languages

High School (9-12)

Le Messager

Print

Primary

The French language newspaper in Lewiston Maine

Various/All

Androscoggin

History

French in North America

High School (9-12)

 The First Franco-Americans: New England Life Histories from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1938-1939.

Click Here (1)

Click Here (2)

Print

Primary

This collection republishes oral histories that were done in the 1930s.  You can also access these interviews through the library of congress website.  Relevant search terms are French Canadian,

1920-1949

Various/All

World Languages

NA

High School (9-12)

Anthologie de la Littérature Franco-Américain de la Nouvelle Angleterre

Print

Primary

Multi-volume anthology of creative works edited by Richard Santerre; a collection of Franco-American prose fiction and poetry

Various/All

Various/All

World Languages

NA

High School (9-12)

La Jeune Franco-Américaine

Print

Primary

Alberte Gastonguay's novel of a Lewiston, Maine, coed who is drawn to New York City but cannot abandon her piety, her language, or her cultural traditions. Simple sentence structure ensures success in teaching this French-language novella in fourth year high school French classes.

Various/All

Androscoggin

World Languages

Geography

Elementary (K-5) & Middle (6-8)

Caribou: mon pays blanc

Print

Secondary

Michel Pipyn's 1977 children's book is the first in a series entitled, "New England Franco American Cities." He presents an illustrated profile of the city of Caribou, Maine - its people and its landscape - as narrated by a moose named Gaston.

1970-79

Aroostook

World Languages

Geography

Elementary (K-5) & Middle (6-8)

Berlin: ville industrielle du nord

Print

Secondary

Phyllis Hagel's 1977 children's book is the second in a series entitled, "New England Franco American Cities." She presents a illustrated profile of the city of Berlin, New Hampshire - its people and its landscape - accompanied by an audio reading of text by student narrator, Celine Fortier.

1970-79

Various/All

World Languages

French in North America

All

La Bonne Aventure

Digital Media

Primary

This children's television program uses puppets, animation, and live-action footage to talk about Franco American cultures in Maine. Developed by the Project FACTS team at MPBN and the University of Maine, "La Bonne Aventure" is supplemented with teacher guides that explain how to integrate its video content with other materials in the language-learning classroom.

1970-79

Various/All

World Languages

History

High School (9-12)

Canuck (Lessard-Bissonnette)

Print

Primary

Story of young girls immigration and work in the mills; easy sentence structure, easily adaptable to classroom

1860-1920

Various/All

World Languages

Visual and Performing Arts

All

Chansons de Chez-Nous

Digital Media

Primary

Renaud Albert presents a collection of music and lyrics for 31 songs with origins in France, Acadia, Quebec, and New England. The text is designed for the French language learning classroom, and published with audio recordings of each classic song.

Various/All

Various/All

World Languages

NA

High School (9-12)

Anthologie de textes littéraires acadiens

Print

Primary

Edited collection of writings from Acadia

Various/All

Various/All

World Languages

History

High School (9-12)

Le fait français au Madawaska Américain

Print

Secondary

PhD thesis written in French on the French communities of Madawaska

1970-79

Various/All