The Library of Congress | Global Gateway | [English] | [Français] |
Themes | Collections | About the Site | Partners | Site Map | Advanced Search |
Parkman, Margry and the Epic of French America | |||||||||
|
Francis Parkman (1823-1893) conceived the idea of writing what he called his “forest epic”, a history of the struggle between France and England for control of North America, while still a student at Harvard. Between 1865 and 1892 he published the seven works that comprise his France and England in North America: Pioneers of France in the New World (1865); The Jesuits of North America in the Seventeenth Century (1867); La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869); The Old Régime in Canada (1874); Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV (1877); A Half-Century of Conflict (1892); and Montcalm and Wolfe (1884). Parkman worked closely with a French collaborator, Pierre Margry (1818-1894), who obtained copies of documents for him and who was an important historian and archivist in his own right. Parkman deeply admired the courage and faith of the French missionaries, the audacity of the French explorers, and the skill of the coureurs de bois, the Canadian-born woodsmen who conducted the illegal fur trade. He concluded, however, that French power in North America ultimately was doomed by the rigidities and weaknesses of the absolutist regime in pre-revolutionary France. Later historians revised many of Parkman’s conclusions, but his 3,000-page work remains a landmark of American historiography and literature.
|
The Library of Congress | Global Gateway | Contact Us Contactez-nous |
Legal Notices Notices Légales |
The Library of Congress | Global Gateway | [English] | [Français] |
Les Thèmes | Les Collections | Sur le site | Partenariats | Plan du site | Recherche Avançée |
Parkman, Margry et l’épopée de l’Amérique française | |||||||||
Les alliances franco-indiennes
Les Français et l’Amérique du Nord après le traité de Paris (1763-1803) |
Francis Parkman (1823-1893), alors qu'il est encore étudiant à Harvard, conçoit l'idée d'écrire une histoire des luttes entre la France et l'Angleterre pour le contrôle de l'Amérique du Nord - ce qu'il appelle son « épopée de la forêt ». De 1865 à 1892, il publie une fresque intitulée France and England in North-America, composée de sept volumes: Pioneers of France in the New World (1865), The Jesuits in North-America in the seventeenth century (1867), The discovery of the great West (1869), The old regime in Canada (1874), Count Frontenac and New-France under Louis XIV (1877), A Half-Century of conflict (1892) et Montcalm and Wolfe (1884). Parkman travaille en étroite collaboration avec l’historien et archiviste français Pierre Margry, qui lui fournit de nombreuses copies de documents. Parkman admire profondément le courage et la foi des missionnaires
envoyés par la France, l'audace de ses explorateurs et l'habileté
de ses "coureurs de bois". Mais il estime surtout que l’empire
français d’Amérique, miné par la rigidité
et les faiblesses du régime absolutiste français, était
voué à l’échec. Si son œuvre est aujourd’hui
datée, elle reste un monument de l’historiographie et de
la littérature américaine.
|
The Library of Congress | Global Gateway | Contact Us Contactez-nous |
Legal Notices Notices Légales |