French Americans

by Ann Heinrichs

The richness of French American culture has given America some of its most colorful features. French Americans takes students on a trip through the past to learn why some of the French left their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592961800
• ISBN13: 9781592961801
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Child's World
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.5" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

Recalling the history and culture of French Americans

At a time when French fries get called "freedom fries" out of an interesting notion of how to display patriotism, it is worth avoiding the obvious comeback and remembering who gave the United States the Statue of Liberty and to consider the story of French immigration to the United States. That is the subject of Ann Heinrichs volume for the Our Cultural Heritage series. Of course, the story of French American predates the founding of the United States. In the first chapter of this juvenile history Heinrichs covers the initial French settlements in the New World. The next chapter looks the immigration of Huguenots, Protestants who fled France after their religion was outlawed in 1685. In 1755 the British threw French settles out of Acadia in what is called "Le Grand Derangement" ("The Great Disturbance"), which is how thousands of Acadians settled in southern Louisiana and became Cajuns. Heinrichs also covers the other waves of French immigration in the 19th century. The final two chapters are devoted to French Americans Today and Sharing Traditions, which looks at the influences and accomplishments of French Americans. Ultimately this book is as much about culture as it is about immigration.The book is illustrated with both historic paintings and contemporary photographs, contains detailed sidebars on the Voyageurs and Life in Acadia, and Interesting Facts in the margins (e.g.,in upper New England more than one quarter of the residents have a French heritage). The back of the volume has a Time Line, Glossary Terms from "ancestry" to "persecution," web sites and books For Further Information, and an Index. At this point the Our Cultural Heritage series has two dozen volumes, from African Americans to Vietnamese Americans, reflecting the ingredients in the national melting pot.To return to our opening topic, is it true that French fries are not a French invention? Well, my research indicates that it was sometime in the early 19th century that some genius decided to drop slices of potato in boiling fat, but the name of that person remains unknown. The French do claim it was one of their citizens but so do the Belgians, and the one thing upon which there is agreement is that by the 1830s deep fried potatoes had become a popular taste sensation in both France and Belgium and a hundred years later they would be a staple of fast food in the United States after American soldiers returning from World War I brought back an acquired taste for fried potatoes.