|
The Cajuns: Americanization of a People | 
 enlarge | Author: Shane K. Bernard
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy New: $12.47
You Save: $7.53 (38%)
New (16) Used (7) from $10.74
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 236342
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 196
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1578065232
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.8410763
EAN: 9781578065233
ASIN: 1578065232
Publication Date: March 12, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The past sixty years have shaped and reshaped the group of French-speaking Louisiana people known as the Cajuns. During this period they have become much like other Americans and yet have remained strikingly distinct. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People explores these six decades and analyzes the forces that had an impact on Louisiana's Acadiana. In the 1940s, when America entered World War II, so too did the isolated Cajuns. Cajun soldiers fought alongside troops from Brooklyn and Berkeley and absorbed aspects of new cultures. In the 1950s as rock 'n' roll and television crackled across Louisiana airwaves, Cajun music makers responded with their own distinct versions. In the 1960s, empowerment and liberation movements turned the South upside down. During the 1980s, as things Cajun became an absorbing national fad, "Cajun" became a kind of brand identity used for selling everything from swamp tours to boxed rice dinners. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the advent of a new information age launched "Cyber-Cajuns" onto a worldwide web. All these forces have pushed and pulled at the fabric of Cajun life but have not destroyed it. A Cajun himself, the author of this book has an intense personal fascination in his people. By linking seemingly local events in the Cajuns' once isolated south Louisiana homeland to national and even global events, Bernard demonstrates that by the middle of the twentieth century the Cajuns for the first time in their ethnic story were engulfed in the currents of mainstream American life and yet continued to make outstandingly distinct contributions. Shane K. Bernard serves as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products since 1868, and Avery Island, Inc. He is the author of Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues (University Press of Mississippi). His work has been published in such periodicals as Louisiana History, Louisiana Folklife, Louisiana Cultural Vistas, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
|
| Customer Reviews:
A Compelling, Sometimes Sorrowful Look At The Modern Cajun January 10, 2005
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
When I first purchased Mr. Bernard's book, "The Cajuns: Americanization Of A People," I initially expected it to be a summary of the last few decades covering every festival, pilgrimmage to Nova Scotia, and Edwin Edwards. In other words, I expected it to be just like a lot of other things labeled Cajun these days: commercial. Although Edwards and Nova Scotia are covered in good detail, this book is anything but commercial. In fact, it can be utterly depressing at times.
When reading the book, one is introduced to a time period for Cajuns that is often glazed over or not even mentioned in Louisiana's colorful history. Most folks are told when the Cajuns landed in Louisiana and how the popularity of their food and "culture" brings loads of tourists and their money to the state. What we aren't told is how prejudice and hate almost forced this group into oblivion. Fortunately for us, this book brings these problems into focus.
To know that fellow countrymen ridiculed the Cajun soldiers for their weak English skills and considered them dumb isn't very good news. Things get bleaker as the decades pass. We are told how children are punished at school because they are speaking Cajun-French instead of English. We are given examples from prominent newspapers and other media in which Cajuns are considered backward, ignorant, stubborn, etc. We learn about the struggle over the term, "coonass," and how many people wear it as a badge of honor whereas others hate it entirely. We are told of how Cajuns are coupled with New Orleans, though New Orleans is one of the least Cajun places in Louisiana. Not only that, but it seems that Canadians and the French, with misguided good intentions, also looked down on Cajuns for their "broken" French language and attempted to repair it and give them a proper culture by introducing Parisian French in the classroom via CODOFIL.
Ah yes, CODOFIL, if you aren't aware of them, you'll know quite a bit about them by the end of this book. Bernard hammers them pretty hard(justifiably) for their early actions in trying to "save" the Cajun culture. He also praises them for their actions in the 1990's. What really amazed me about this group in particular is that they merely asked for an apology from the English for exiling the Cajuns to Canada instead of attempting to sucker reparations out of the British government. Kudos to CODOFIL for taking the high road on that one.
Bernard's book isn't entirely bleak. He does mention many of the contributions that Cajuns have made to society. He tells us how many Cajuns served as translators during WWII. He talks about the colorful and crooked Edwin Edwards and how he used his "Cajun Power" to ultimately become governor of Louisiana. We learn about Zachary Richard, an amazing artist and a rebel. Dewey Balfa, Barry Ancelet, and numerous others are introduced to the reader as positive influences on society.
Although I haven't stated it yet, I am a Cajun. I grew up on the fringes of Acadiana in Allen Parish. I was brought up Baptist(I became Catholic in 2000), can't speak enough French(Cajun or Parisian) to save my life, and yet I have come face-to-face with some of the prejudices that Bernard mentions in his book(though not nearly as extreme as those before me). I've been called a "dumb coonass" before, even though I kept a 4.0 GPA throughout high school and graduated with honors from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA with a degree in Mass Communication. I was also referred to as "one of those Frenchmen" when I worked in Beauregard parish for awhile. At a technical training class in Dallas, TX, I was amazed at how I became a sort of spectacle to the rest of the guys in my group. They were amazed that I ate crawfish and could say a few cusswords in French. When we all went out together, I always managed to sit at the "ethnic" end of the table with the black guy, the Navajo guy, the Mexican guy, and the Spanish guy from Texas(He was very aggressive in letting everyone know that he wasn't Mexican). In essence, I was considered a minority by the group as a whole. It's funny how having an "un-American" accent can make one feel like an outsider. I didn't hate anybody for considering me an ethnic. Heck, I enjoyed it because I was the center of attention. I've been barraged by questions about gumbo, accordians, the Rayne Frog Festival, and even pet alligators! In other words, I have stared into the face of commercial Cajunism all over the United States. I've also come into contact with people who try very hard to distance themselves from their heritage in an attempt to seem more intelligent or better than their Cajun roots.
Being a Cajun is something that any man, woman, or child should take pride in. Granted, these days most of us probably listen to Top 40 radio or gangsta rap more than the Balfa Brothers or BeauSoleil, and we can't speak French very well, but we are still Cajun deep inside. I am proud of and love my heritage and this book solidifies that pride and love.
Highly recommended to folks who aren't Cajun and mandatory reading for those who are. This book is important for those of us who don't want to see our heritage die.
Cajun Power.... June 21, 2003
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book changed my life! Mr. Bernard does a great job of putting the culture in perspective. His history is accurate, interesting and inspiring. As a full blooded cajun, living outside of Louisiana, this book really hit home. I'm convinced I must return and learn the cajun french language and encourage the rest of the younger people in my family to do the same. Thanks for a great book.
I loved it. August 18, 2003
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
It is like he interviewed my grandparents. This book is incredibly accurate and covers the most dynamic period of the Cajun history. This book should be mandatory reading for young people from this area. His coverage of the old perceptions regarding the Cajun people are particularly humorous and his arguments for the dilution of the French traditions well stated. Informative read.
A Key Book in Understanding Contemporary Cajun Culture November 23, 2004
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
The Cajun people have long been a subject of curiosity, and much has been written about their unique past. Since their existence, Cajuns have been studied by historians and romanticized by poets; however, there has been a dearth of serious historical work focusing on the recent transformation of their identity. Primarily a 20th century phenomenon for Cajuns, Americanization (the process by which a group or sub-culture becomes assimilated into the larger American identity) is the focal point of Bernard's The Cajuns.
Save for the introduction, which provides a quick historical overview of the Cajuns and perceptions of them through their existence, Bernard's tome consistently pairs each chapter to a corresponding decade, allowing the reader to follow the process of Cajun Americanization in a chronological fashion. Starting in the 1940s, chapter one discusses the effects of World War II on Cajuns in the military as well as those who remained back home. The decade of the 1950s, along with the cold war and global politics, and how these events affected Cajuns, makes up chapter two. In chapter three, the turbulent 1960s brings to light the changing mores and nationwide cultural shifts that Cajuns had to deal with, and how they were transformed by these changes. Chapter four reveals how Cajuns began to take back their identity in the 1970s through a number of initiatives. Finally, revitalization, expansion and exploitation of the culture and the resulting backlash in the 1980s and 1990s is explored in chapter five.
Bernard's examples of Americanization are numerous, stark and, in some cases, disturbing. Mostly isolated for around 200 years, the Cajuns enjoyed relative exclusion from the evolving American ethos. Indeed, early Acadian settlers into the Louisiana territory, whose descendants would later become Cajuns, had settled the prairies and bayous of modern day Louisiana even before it became part of the United States. And while one might presume that the 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory by the United States was the beginning of the Americanization process, Bernard's research points to the events of the 20th century, fueled by war and the acceleration of technology, as the paramount period of the culture's alteration.
While technological advances such as rural electrification, the automobile, and television provided a vehicle for the Americanization process, the seminal event that fostered Americanization of the Cajuns was World War II. Young Cajun G.I.s returned to their homes in South Louisiana with a new found awareness of the world. Some of these "world-wise" Cajuns began to pursue formal education, start businesses, and participate in politics.
Nonetheless, many Cajuns had no such opportunities, and for them, Americanization was an assault on their identity. The very language they spoke became a target, as evidenced by public school efforts to intimidate Cajun French speaking students into learning and speaking English. Techniques such as spanking, humiliation and writing of lines were used in order to coerce children to abandon their native tongue and learn the lingua franca of a unified America. (My own father experienced such methods upon first attending public school in 1951.) The result of this attempted eradication of the Cajuns' language was that the affected generation became ashamed to speak their first language, and was reticent to pass this gift to their children.
It should be noted that not every aspect of Americanization was brought about through coercion, however. Cajuns have readily accepted the economic advantages of becoming members of the American middle and upper class. Like their contemporaries in other parts of the United States, Cajuns drive SUVs and luxury cars, have mortgages, pay taxes, and invest in the stock market. From every external perception, they have become American. Yet in spite of this noticeable transformation, modern Cajuns have managed to negotiate a place for themselves in American society by maintaining cultural activities that project their inherent identity. Music, cuisine, religion and other institutions are the outlets used today to remind the world (and ironically, themselves) that they are still Cajun.
The reader will find, as I have, that Bernard's work is a unique prism from which to view contemporary Cajuns. No longer stereotyped as illiterate and poor French speaking people of bayous or prairies, Cajuns of the modern world are a composition of English and/or French speakers with surnames ranging from Arceneaux to Zerangue. And even while some may manifest no outward sign of their heritage, they are no less Cajun than a Vietnamese in Hanoi or a Chinese in Shanghai. Only time will tell if subsequent generations of Cajuns will keep at bay the ever-increasing tide of homogenous American culture, or be overcome by its powerful waves.
Gripping glimpse into a captivating culture. June 24, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the 1940s, WASP schoolteachers across Louisiana were corporally punishing any students caught speaking Cajun French. Even though Cajun was the first language for most children, it was viewed as an impedement to progress that had to be weeded out of the state. By the 1990s, French natives recruited to teach in LA schools were told not to refer to Parisien French as "proper French," because this might imply that Cajun French was incorrect or wrong.
To explain the shift, Cajun author Shane K. Bernard leads his readers through decades of Cajun history, from WW2 to the present. At one end of his extensive book, LA's uniqueness is dissolving to homogenized America. Child actor Keith Thibedoux, who played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy, was so unaware of his heritage that he could only shrug when asked if he was Cajun. At the other end of the book, LA is in the midst of Francofete, a year-long, state-wide celebrationof French heritage, even as many LA residents were fast losing interest in preserving Cajun culture. "Where Did All the Cajuns Go?" one local newspaper asked.
Bernard examines how Louisiana Cajuns were impacted by national events by the Red Scare, local events like the completion of their state's stretch of Interstate 10, and the exploitation of their culture (Popeye's, for example, has done more to commercialize Cajun food than any other resteraunt). By the end of the book, Bernard's Louisiana readers must look in the mirror to find out where their state's Cajun, culture, and language are disappearing to.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
