A Nation Beyond Borders

Michel Bock is Associate Professor of History at the University of Ottawa and holds a Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie. His research focuses on the intellectual and political history of French Canada. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Michel-Brunet, the Prix Champlain, and the Governor General's Literary Award.
Ferdinanda Van Gennip is a professional translator. Her published translations include works of Mario Cardinal (Breaking Point: Québec/Canada, the 1995 Referendum), John Monbourquette (How to Discover Your Personal Mission; How to Befriend your Shadow) and Simone Weil (The Afflicted Genius of France).
This book, first published as Quand la nation débordait les frontières (Hurtubise HMH, 2004), is considered the most comprehensive analysis of Lionel Groulx's work and vision as an intellectual leader of a nationalist school that extended well beyond the borders of Québec.

Recipient of the 2005 Governor General's Literary Award in non-fiction, the original French edition also won the Michel-Brunet Award (Institut d'histoire de l'Amérique française), the Prix Champlain (Conseil de la vie française en Amérique), and a medal awarded by the Québec National Assembly. It was also shortlisted for the Jean-Charles-Falardeau Award (Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines du Canada) and the City of Ottawa Book Award.

For over five decades, historians and intellectuals have defined the nationalist discourse primarily in territorial terms. In this regard, Groulx has been portrayed-more often than not-as the architect of Québécois nationalism. Translated by Ferdinanda Van Gennip, A Nation Beyond Borders will continue to spark debate on Groulx's description of the parameters of the French-Canadian nation. Highlighting the often neglected role of French-Canadian minorities in his thought, this book presents the Canon as an uncompromising advocate of solidarity between all French-Canadian communities. "French Canada can no longer be considered a geographical expression defined by the borders of Québec," wrote priest, historian and intellectual leader Lionel Groulx in 1935. Groulx became one of the chief advocates of solidarity between Québec and the French minorities well beyond the borders of la vieille province. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE – THE FRENCH MINORITIES IN THE WORK AND THOUGHT OF LIONEL GROULX: THE BLIND SPOT OF HISTORIANS OF FRENCH-CANADIAN NATIONALISM
French-Canadian nationalism and the emergence of the theory of provincialism
The historians and L'Action française
The historians and the thought of Lionel Groulx
Modernity, "Americanness" and the French minorities
Québec and the French minorities in recent historiography
CHAPTER TWO – THE FRENCH MINORITIES: VESTIGES OF AN EMPIRE: FRENCH CANADA, ITS APOSTOLIC VOCATION AND FOUNDING MISSION
The French-Canadian nation according to Lionel Groulx: conceptual clarifications
Nation and state in Groulxist nationalism
Essential conditions: tradition and will
The minorities and French-Canadian messianism
French Canada and the theory of the providential creation of nations
Providence, history and French America
The minorities and the founding peoples theory
The minorities and the pact of 1867
The minorities in the Anglo-Protestant world
CHAPTER THREE – QUÉBEC AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MINORITIES: THE TIES THAT BIND
Québec, the metropolis of French Canada
The citadel and the vanguard
The French minorities and the ineffectualness of Québec
National solidarity at work
L'Action française: preaching by example
Building bridges: la fête de Dollard, the "saving organization" and other measures
CHAPTER FOUR – FRANCO-ONTARIANS AND REGULATION 17: THE AWAKENING OF THE NATION
Groulx and French Ontario: contacts and connections
In Ottawa
In Southern Ontario
The French-Canadian nationalist movement and the catalyzing role of Regulation 17
Groulx intervenes in the Franco-