TORONTO: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ITS FIRST 12,000 YEARS
edited by Ronald F. Williamson

From the final retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet to its emergence as a Canada's leading city, this book explores the evolution of Toronto over the past 12,000 years.

Five knowledgeable historians have combined efforts to bring together beautiful illustrations and fascinating, fresh perspectives in this new, natural, archaeological and social history. The book starts with Robert MacDonald's exploration of the characteristics of Toronto's site, geographic and geological. Using the results of recent archaeological research, illustrated with artifacts found in the Toronto area, archaeologist Ron Williamson offers many details about the lives of the Aboriginal people who made temporary camps and villages along the river valleys and lakeshore. Toronto was greatly affected by the struggles between Britain and France, then the tensions between Britain and the post-revolutionary United States in the 1700s and 1800s. The city was selected as the seat of government because of its greater distance from the border compared to rivals. Still, American forces attacked Toronto three times during the War of 1812. Carl Benn explains how Toronto grew into the most important cultural and commercial centre west of Montreal during the early nineteenth century. Chris Andreae provides a revealing account of how the 19th century railway age allowed Toronto to increase its dominance of Ontario, and become an industrial powerhouse for all of Canada. The last decades of the 20th century mark Toronto's emergence as Canada's largest and most influential city. Roger Hall describes how this happened, and how in the process Toronto became the vigorous, multicultural, lively community it is today.

THE AUTHORS

Editor Ron Williamson is the managing partner of Archaeological Services Inc. and is an associate of the graduate faculty at the University of Toronto.

Chris Andreae is a geographer and industrial and transportation historian and is president of Historica Research Ltd.

Carl Benn is Chair of the Department of History at Ryerson University, and teaches at the University of Toronto.

Peter J. Carruthers is a senior associate with Archaeological Services Inc. having worked as a heritage planner with the Ontario Ministry of Culture for twenty-five years. He is the former Chair of Heritage Toronto.

Roger Hall is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and Graduate Chair of the History Department at the University of Western Ontario.

Robert MacDonald is a partner at Archaeological Services Inc. and teaches anthropology at the University of Waterloo.

The following endorsement for the book appeared on Christopher Moore's Canadian History Blog

"My nomination would be Toronto: An Illustrated History of Its First 12,000 Years edited by Ronald F. Williamson (Lorimer, 2008). I suggest this book for several reasons:

It is a comprehensive popular history that fills a gap in the existing literature about Toronto. In particular, it treats, seriously, the entire history of this place on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and not just the post-1750 history of Toronto. In other words, it gives equal treatment (in terms of scholarship and pages) to aboriginal (precontact) history instead of treating it as an afterthought (or before-thought). Some important information and images relating to precontact history derived from consultant archaeology -- not otherwise seen by most people -- is made available.

It is written by scholars, writing in an accessible format and is well-edited to assure flow and consistent voice.

It is beautifully layed-out and well-illustrated; nicely designed to be a modestly-sized and priced book (not an expensive weighty tome) -- making it even more attractive to a wider readership, including schools. Eminently giftable.

PS, despite the pitch, I had nothing to do with the book. I am simply a grateful reader -- one with a serious interest in the history of Toronto who recognizes a good thing."

(Dr. Andrew Stewart, Vice-Chair, Friends of Fort York, Editor, Ontario Archaeology)

A SELECTION OF IMAGES APPEARING IN THE BOOK:

A Typical Sunday spent strolling Scarborough Beach Park Boardwalk in 1910. (City of Toronto Archives)

Scalling the Bluffs in 1909. Notice they are wearing ties and dress shirts. (City of Toronto Archives)

Streetcars at the CNE. (City of Toronto Archives)

People washing their cars in the Humber River in 1922. (City of Toronto Archives)

The quaternary sediments at the Don Valley Brickworks reveal over 100,000 years of geological history and the site is a common location for field visits for geology classes from Toronto area schools. (Ed Freeman, Private Collection)

This is a southerly view of the Niagara Escarpment with Lake Ontario on the horizon. (www.ourgreenbelt.ca)

This 500-year-old human effigy adorned a ceramic pipe bowl and provides a rare glimpse into the appearance of people. (Andrea Carnevale, Archaeological Services Inc.)

While installing weeping tiles and several water features in the 1920s (which are still present in the gardens today), Frederick James uncovered twelve stone tools that included this four thousand-year-old spear point. (Andrea Carnevale, Archaeological Services Inc.)

This is a 700-year-old ceramic effigy pipe perhaps in the form of a pregnant female. She has a basket strapped to her back that functioned as the bowl of the pipe. (Archaeological Services Inc.)

This moose antler comb, likely worn by a Seneca person, was found at the site of Teiaiagon. It dates to the 1680s and was carved and etched with significant Aboriginal religious symbols. (John Howarth, Archaeological Services Inc.)

The Toronto Suburban Railway on Davenport Road, just west of Bathurst, 1923. This company operated an electric, inter-urban railway service from Toronto to Guelph. Between 1900 and 1920, other inter-urban railways radiated out from Toronto to Scarborough, Lake Simcoe, and Port Credit. (City of Toronto Archives)

A house in "The Ward," winter, 1912. Much of the Ward - an area bounded by University Avenue, College, Yonge and Queen Streets - contained slum housing. It was, however, the area of Toronto where many new immigrants first settled. (City of Toronto Archives)

Unemployed workers sleeping in the bandstand at Queen's Park in 1938.

"Toronto's City Hall became the focal point for teeming thousands," reported the Globe and Mail of VE day celebrations on May 7th, 1945. "Servicemen and their girl friends hopped onto running boards, perched on car bumpers and even straddled the hoods of the vehicles. Nobody cared." The paper called it a "Carnival of Joy." "In many a church and in the privacy of homes, were those who prayed and wept. For these the victory was bought at great price." (City of Toronto Archives)

Jonathan Kearns stark and striking contemporary memorial for the Irish Famine victims, many of whom made their way to Canada in the mid-nineteenth century, reminds us that Toronto remains a refuge for those from abroad but that the journey is not always a smooth one. (Yarema Bezchlibnyk, Private Collection)