Can a people’s past be completely eradicated from popular memory? Not if we believe commentators such as novelist Peter Carey: “History is like a bloodstain that keeps on showing on the wall,” he once noted, “no matter how many new owners take possession, no matter how many times we paint over it.” Canadian journalist Philip Marchand is not so confident.
In Ghost Empire: How the French Almost Conquered North America, Marchand looks at the lingering impact of France’s imperial ambitions in North America, focusing on the explorer Sieur de La Salle. La Salle’s extraordinary 17th-century journey through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi is one many Canadians will recall, at least vaguely, from their schooldays. In Marchand’s case, this early exposure came in an especially romanticized form, through the works of 19th-century historian Francis Parkman. As a third-generation French Canadian growing up in New England, the young Marchand was put off by...
Mark Lovewell has held various senior roles at Ryerson University. He is also one of the magazine’s contributing editors.
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