Louisbourg Heritage: From Ruins to Reconstruction

Olaf Uwe Janzen is an associate professor of history at Sir Wilfred
Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

In 1960, little was left of historic Louisbourg but open fields
sprinkled with a few crumbling ruins. Today, it is an “international
model for historic site preservation, interpretation and public
history.”

Louisbourg Heritage is the fascinating story of the restoration. It is
a story full of drama—of challenges overcome, of compromises made, of
the constant awareness that the project was very much an experiment in
which historians, archeologists, museumologists, and other professionals
were “learning while doing.”

The book is organized into five chapters, which focus on the initial
research effort, the early implementation of the project, the expansion
of the project after 1973, the challenge of reconstruction and
interpretation, and the nature of public history. Attention is also
given to the organizational evolution of the project (the federal
government preferred that the project be run from Ottawa) as well as to
the strong link that needed to be forged between research and
interpretation.

The book is not without its flaws. The most irritating involve the
figures, which were incorrectly cited in the text; also, more maps would
help readers puzzle out specific details. However, this does not detract
from the book’s importance. More than 20 years ago, Bruce Fry
suggested that a full assessment of the program to restore historic
Louisbourg “would be as fascinating as the study of the original
French achievements, and ... a worthwhile contribution towards an
appreciation of the difficulties and responsibilities entailed in
preserving our cultural heritage.” With his book, Terry MacLean has
met Fry’s challenge.