In the more than two decades since the publication of Ontario Since Confederation: A Reader, Ontario, Canada, North America, and the world have experienced a whirlwind of profound changes. This new edition brings together leading scholars to present a new and expansive view of Ontario's social, political, and economic history.
Building on the strengths of the first edition, the second edition reflects on the dramatic changes in historical practice and understanding that have marked the last two decades. Taking a chronological approach and broadening the theme of state and society, the book explores important topics such as the environment, gender, continentalism, urban growth, and Indigenous issues. This timely update to Ontario Since Confederation features new and revised chapters, as well as new discussion questions designed to stimulate and guide readers to make connections between and across the entire book.
Bringing together a wide range of perspectives, approaches, and frameworks, Ontario Since Confederation sheds light on historical changes in Canada's most populous province across more than one and a half centuries.
Edited by:
Lori Chambers,
Edgar-Andre Montigny,
James Onusko,
Dimitry Anastakis
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions:
Height: 254mm,
Width: 178mm,
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9781487534011
ISBN 10: 1487534019
Pages: 610
Publication Date: 18 March 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface 1. Introduction Part I: Race and Gender 2. Putting Flesh on the Bones: Writing the History of Julia Turner Afua Cooper 3. “Both silly and loose”: Deconstructing Women’s Criminal Behaviour in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century Oxford County, Ontario Rebecca Beausaert 4. The Case of the “One Good Chinaman”: Rex v. Charles Lee Hing, Stratford, Ontario, 1909 Mona-Margaret Pon 5. The History of Education at Six Nations of the Grand River, 1828–1939 Alison Norman 6. “I Just Felt Like I Belonged to Them”: Women’s Industrial Softball, London, Ontario, 1923–1935 Carly Adams Part II: Class, Business, and Politics 7. “Cracking the Stone” and Marching under Flags Black and Red: Toronto’s Dispossessed in the Age of Industry, 1880–1925 Bryan Palmer and Gaetan Heroux 8. The Rise and Fall of an Ontario Business Dynasty: William Kennedy & Sons and Its Successors, 1857–1997 Keith R. Fleming 9. Indian Reserves v. Indian Lands: Reserves, Crown Lands, and Natural Resource Use in Northeastern Ontario Jean L. Manore 10. The Ontario-Quebec Axis: Postwar Strategies in Intergovernmental Relations P.E. Bryden 11. Power at the Centre: The Evolution of the Premier’s Office in Ontario since 1945 Patrice Dutil and Peter P. Constantinou 12. New Public Management, New Technology: Who Foots the Bill? Information Infrastructure Renewal in Ontario, 1996–2003 David Rapaport Part III: Family 13. Families, Institutions, and the State in Late Nineteenth-Century Ontario Edgar-Andre Montigny 14. “A Barren Cupboard at Home”: Ontario Families Confront the Premiers during the Great Depression, 1929–1939 Lara Campbell 15. Adoption Records in Ontario: Secrecy and the Movement for Reform Valerie Andrews and Lori Chambers Part IV: Epidemiologies and Environments 16. “I had a little bird, its name was Enza”: Children and Adolescents in Ontario and the 1918–20 Spanish Flu James A. Onusko 17. From Polluted Periphery to Vital Green Corridor: Toronto’s Don River Valley, 1793–1989 Jennifer L. Bonnell 18. Ontario and a Changing Climate Mark Winfield and Colleen Kaiser Part V: The State and Welfare 19. “By Every Means in Our Power”: Child and Maternal Welfare in Ontario, 1914 to 1940 Cynthia R. Comacchio 20. The Birch Battles: Daycare and the Welfare State in 1970s Ontario Lisa Pasolli 21. Intolerable Harm: Demanding Mental Health Services for Franco-Ontarian Youth Prior to the Montfort Hospital Crisis Mathieu Arsenault and Marcel Martel 22. A Disability History of Ontario from Confederation to the Coronavirus Pandemic, 1867–2020 Geoffrey Reaume 23. Welfare to Workfare to Basic Income: Poverty and the “Dependency Debate” in Ontario, from the 1930s to 2020 James Struthers
Lori Chambers is a professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University. Edgar-Andre Montigny is an independent scholar and lawyer living in Toronto. James Onusko is the principal of Champlain College and an adjunct graduate professor at Trent University. Dimitry Anastakis is the L.R. Wilson and R.J. Currie Chair in Canadian Business History in the Department of History and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Reviews for Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, Second Edition
""The new edition of Ontario Since Confederation examines monumental changes in both the province's history and the field of historical research, including methodology and thematic coverage. Well-written and engaging, the volume's major strengths lie in how the individual chapters situate their particular topics within the long sweep of Ontario and Canadian history, taking them up to the present day. This approach allows students to connect current issues and controversies with their historical roots, particularly in the chapters on disease, daycare, and social policies such as poverty reduction.""--Kevin Brushett, Associate Professor of History, Royal Military College of Canada ""Ontario since Confederation examines the social, political, and economic history of Ontario. The volume integrates the 'transformational changes' in Ontario's history and reflects on recent trends in historical scholarship and historical practice that have emerged in the last two decades. It explores the relentless change and the resilience of Ontarians, all within the context of Ontario's declining political and economic centrality in Canada. With up-to-date scholarship, this collection makes a valuable contribution to the field, filling a void as Ontario, despite being the most populous and economically powerful province, seems to have received less attention from historians than most other regions in the country.""--David MacKenzie, Professor of History, Toronto Metropolitan University