Marcel Trudel influenced a generation of French-Canadian historians. He always strove for intellectual freedom, sometimes scandalizing the French-Canadian religious and academic establishment. In 1960 he shocked readers when he revealed the prevalence of slavery in New France and later explored the life of Chiniquy, the Catholic priest who became a Protestant pastor. Although now widely admired in English and French Canada, Trudel's uncompromising research methods earned him much criticism as he demolished the myths of New France's heroes. Memoirs of a Less Travelled Road is deeply informative about the conflicting attitudes that led to Quebec's Quiet Revolution. Trudel portrays the closed world of his childhood, and the trials and triumphs of academic life.