Old Ontario

In ten original studies, former students and colleagues of Maurice Careless, one of Canada’s most distinguished historians, explore both traditional and hitherto neglected topics in the development of nineteenth-century Ontario. Their papers incorporate the three themes that characterize their mentor’s scholarly efforts: metropolitan-hinterland relations; urban development; and the impact of ’limited identities’ — gender, class, ethnicity and regionalism — that shaped the lives of Old Ontarians.

Traditional topics — colonial-imperial tension and the growth of Canadian autonomy in the Union period, the making of a ’compact’ in early York, politics in pre-Rebellion Toronto, and the social vision of the late Upper Canadian elites — are re-examined with fresh sensitivity and new sources. Maters about which little has been written — urban perspectives on rural and Northern Ontario, Protestant revivals, an Ontario style in church architecture, the late-nineteenth-century ready-made clothing industry, Native-Newcomer conflict to the 1860s, and the separate and unequal experiences of women and men student teachers at the Provincial Normal school — receive equally insightful treatment.

An appreciative biography of Careless, an analysis of the relativism underpinning his approach to national and Ontario history, and a listing of Careless’s publications, complete this stimulating collection.