Acadians. Rev. ed.

Margaret Conrad is a professor of history at Acadia University. She is
the author of Intimate Relations: Family and Community in Planter Nova
Scotia, 1759–1800, and Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in
Planter Nova Scotia, 1759–1800 and the co

This book is a revised and expanded edition of a book published in 1991
on one of the Maritime region’s largest and most colorful ethnic
minorities. Part of a series designed to highlight the rich cultural
diversity of the Maritime Provinces, it is written to a given set of
topics: original homeland, immigration and settlement, history in the
Maritimes, contributions to the Maritimes and Canada, and prominent
individuals. The revised edition includes, among other things, a new
chapter on the Acadians in the Maritimes in the 1990s.

Author Henri-Dominique Paratte, a recent immigrant of Swiss-French
ancestry, brings a sharp eye to bear on issues of Acadian culture and
identity within and outside (Louisiana in particular) the Maritime
region as it has evolved over nearly four centuries. While highlighting
the significance of the deportation that, beginning in 1755 and
continuing through to the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, served
as the defining moment in Acadian history, Paratte devotes most of his
narrative to the struggle of Acadians to re-establish themselves in
their Maritime homeland and to various aspects of Acadian
culture—language, music, folklore, and food, for example.

Because the Acadians have a long history in the Maritimes and because
their history has been a subject of much scholarly research, this book
is bulkier than most in the series. Indeed, the author is not content
merely to describe trends, but seems compelled to make reference to
every example to prove a given case, especially when discussing recent
developments in “Acadie.” The result makes tough reading at times,
but also gives this book a valuable encyclopedic quality. There is even
a section devoted to current Internet sites that document aspects of
Acadian culture. Unfortunately, unlike other books in this series, this
volume provides no bibliography to direct readers to significant
scholarly published sources, on which this book is presumably based.