Having already taken on such larger-than-life figures as Paul Revere and George Washington, the American historian David Hackett Fischer decided—in a sense—to cross the border to look at a Canadian icon, Samuel de Champlain. There was, of course, no border in Champlain’s time, and in fact Champlain’s wide-ranging exploration of North America took him to both sides of the line that would subsequently be drawn. Indeed, the subtitle of the U.S. edition of the book reads “The European Founding of North America,” which is more accurate than the Canadian one. However, Fischer (or his publisher) was apparently self-conscious about appropriating a Canadian hero and made the adjustment for the Canadian edition, although the Americanization of Champlain in Fischer’s treatment is unmistakable. The French explorer is frequently compared to such American figures as the “founding fathers” or to such presidents as Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman. All of these...
Ronald Rudin is a professor of history at Concordia University and author of two books touching on the memory of Champlain: Found Fathers: Champlain and Laval in the Streets of Quebec (University of Toronto Press, 2003) and Remembering and Forgetting in Acadie: A Historian’s Journey through Public Memory (University of Toronto Press, 2009).
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