Robert Rumilly

Robert Rumilly, nationalist historian (b in Martinique 1897; d at Montréal 8 Mar 1983). In an amazing series of 42 volumes, Rumilly set forth the history of Québec from 1867 to the present. Despite a lack of professional training (he never backed up his evidence with footnotes), he was the first French Canadian writer to block out the history of his native province and thus deserves the gratitude of the writers who have followed in his path and relied heavily on his work.

In his writing, he used the concept of "race" to explain the relations between Francophones and Anglophones, and as well he explored the effects of industrialization on his people. Rumilly believed that Québec was destined to be the centre of Catholicism and French civilization in North America. In his essentially conservative and even right-wing outlook, he was an eloquent spokesman in the 1950s for the traditional nationalist current which found its political expression in the Union Nationale regime headed by Maurice Duplessis.