Matt points out a Salon review/author Q&A with John Mack Faragher, author of that history of the Acadian expulsion I’ve written about here. It’s mostly good, although it’s downright amusing how Salon, in its inimitable way, tries to turn everything into an attack on George W. Bush.

“Q: In your account, the Acadians were repeatedly blamed for events they had nothing to do with, or could not control. Indians attack settler villages in Maine or Massachusetts, and Puritan preachers stir up hatred against the “neutral French” because they’re seen as sinister figures, possibly in cahoots with the Indians. You don’t want to look into the past and see the present, but I don’t know: the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, the Gulf of Tonkin, the spurious connection between al-Qaida and Saddam. Is this a pattern in American history?”

Or this classic gratuitous slap:

“Q: When you describe, very powerfully and painfully, how the expulsion of the Acadians was actually carried out, you write that this was one of the most horrific episodes in American history. That’s a startling statement, isn’t it? We’re talking about a continent that had slavery for more than 200 years, and a continent where the native peoples were more or less wiped out. I mean, there’s a high bar to get over here, in terms of horrific episodes.”

03 March 2005

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