A Strong Sense of Unity and tradition frames a fascinating history of Manchester, New Hampshire's Franco-American community. Author Robert B. Perreault presents this story through compelling vignettes, including the triumphant success of photographer Ulric Bourgeois, the undeniable conflict between the French and Irish immigrants and a colorful profile of book collector and author Adélard Lambert. Featuring vintage images from Perreault's private collection, this work is a stunning visual narrative of the French-Canadian contributions to local culture. Book jacket.

This book brings together studies of cultural institutions in Manchester from 1850 to the present day, giving an unprecedented account of the city's cultural evolution. These bring to light the remarkable range of Manchester's contribution to modern cultural life, including the role of art education, popular theatre, religion, pleasure gardens, clubs and societies. The chapters show the resilience and creativity of Manchester's cultural institutions since 1850, challenging any simple narrative of urban decline following the erosion of Lancashire's industrial base, at the same time illustrating the range of activities across the social classes. This book will appeal to everyone interested in the cultural life of the city of Manchester, including cultural historians, sociologists and urban geographers, as well as general readers with interests in the city. It is written by leading international authorities, including Viv Gardner, Stephen Milner, Mike Savage, Bill Williams and Janet Wolff.

Intended to help readers develop an appreciation of the contributions of Franco-Americans to the cultural heritage of the United States, this book, the third of six volumes, presents 17 readings representing many perspectives--from the historical to the sociological--illustrating the thinking and feelings of those in the forefront of Franco-American studies. This volume focuses on Franco-Americans in New England. The following readings are presented: "The French-Canadians in New England" (William MacDonald); "French Catholics in the United States" (J. K. L. LaFlamme, David E. Lavigne, and J. Arthur Favreau); "French and French-Canadians in the United States" (Mason Wade); "The Acadian Migrations" (Robert LeBlanc); "The Loyalists and the Acadians" (Mason Wade); "The Franco-Americans in Maine: A Geographical Perspective" (James P. Allen); "Quebec to 'Little Canada': The Coming of the French-Canadians to New England in the Nineteenth Century" (Iris Saunders Podea); "The French Colony at Brunswick, Maine: A Historical Sketch" (William N. Locke); "The Franco-Americans of New England" (George F. Theriault); "The Laborers of Manchester, New Hampshire 1912-1922: The Role of Family and Ethnicity in Adjustment to Industrial Life" (Tamara K. Hareven); "The Franco-American Working-Class Family" (Laurence French); "Traditional French-Canadian Family Life Patterns and Their Implications for Social Services in Vermont" (Peter Woolfson); "The Presidential Politics of Franco-Americans" (David B. Walker); "A Profile of Franco-American Political Attitudes in New England" (Norman Sepenuk); "The French Parish and 'Survivance' in 19th Century New England" (Mason Wade); "The Shadows of the Trees: Religion and Language" (Jacques Ducharme); and "French National Societies in New England" (Edward Billings Ham). (LH)

The working class in New York City was remade in the mid-nineteenth century. In the 1820s a substantial majority of city artisans were native-born; by the 1850s three-quarters of the city's laboring men and women were immigrants. How did the influx of this large group of young adults affect the city's working class? What determined the texture of working-class life during the antebellum period? Richard Stott addresses these questions as he explores the social and economic dimensions of working-class culture. Working-class culture, Stott maintains, is grounded in the material environment, and when work, population, consumption, and the uses of urban space change as rapidly as they did in the mid-nineteenth century, culture will be transformed. Using workers' first-person accounts—letters, diaries, and reminiscences—as evidence, and focusing on such diverse topics as neighborhoods, diet, saloons, and dialect, he traces the rise of a new, youth-oriented working-class culture. By illuminating the everyday experiences of city workers, he shows that the culture emerging in the 1850s was a culture clearly different from that of native-born artisans of an earlier period and from that of the middle class as well.

Every June the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, celebrates Franco-American Day, raising the Franco-American flag and hosting events designed to commemorate French culture in the Americas. Though there are twenty million French speakers and people of French or francophone descent in North America, making them the fifth-largest ethnic group in the United States, their cultural legacy has remained nearly invisible. Events like Franco-American Day, however, attest to French ethnic permanence on the American topography. In Franco-America in the Making, Jonathan K. Gosnell examines the manifestation and persistence of hybrid Franco-American literary, musical, culinary, and media cultures in North America, especially New England and southern Louisiana. To shed light on the French cultural legacy in North America long after the formal end of the French empire in the mid-eighteenth century, Gosnell seeks out hidden French or “Franco” identities and sites of memory in the United States and Canada that quietly proclaim an intercontinental French presence, examining institutions of higher learning, literature, folklore, newspapers, women’s organizations, and churches. This study situates Franco-American cultures within the new and evolving field of postcolonial Francophone studies by exploring the story of the peoples and ideas contributing to the evolution and articulation of a Franco-American cultural identity in the New World. Gosnell asks what it means to be French, not simply in America but of America.

Against the odds, the Hudson Valley has cleaned up its act and rediscovered its soul. In this well researched and passionate treatise on the much celebrated but long abused Hudson River, author Roger Stone describes how protecting New York City’s drinking water supply, making innovative efforts to safeguard views and open space, and reconnecting communities with long abandoned stretches of priceless shoreline have combined to bring about a new age of spirited restoration in a region that long seemed condemned to cultural and environmental mediocrity. Stone links disparate historical, cultural, political, and environmental threads to clearly show the multiple forces that have made this turnaround happen, a vivid example of new ideas and values for a nation struggling to counter devastating economic and environmental effects of misusing the landscape. The extraordinary revival of the majestic Hudson River estuary and its surrounding areas, even in communities where hope was long in short supply, shows remarkable results when it’s done right.

"In this book, Gerard J. Brault offers an introduction to Franco- American culture, covering the group's history, ideology, language, and literature; architecture, art, folklore, and music; demography, education, politics, religion, and sociology. " Back cover of book.