Full Description
This masterful social and environmental history raises questions about how decisions being made about the natural world today will shape the cities of tomorrow.
In 1865, John Smoke braved the ice on Burlington Bay to go spearfishing. Soon after, he was arrested by a fishery inspector and then convicted by a magistrate who chastised him for thinking that he was at liberty to do as he pleased "with Her Majesty's property."
With this story, Nancy Bouchier and Ken Cruikshank launch their history of the relationship between the people of Hamilton, Ontario, and Hamilton Harbour (aka Burlington Bay). From the time of European settlement through to the city's rise as an industrial power, townsfolk struggled with nature, and with one another, to champion their particular vision of "the bay" as a place to live, work, and play. As Smoke discovered, the outcomes of those struggles reflected the changing nature of power in an industrial city. From efforts to conserve the fishery in the 1860s to current attempts to revitalize a seriously polluted harbour, each generation has tried to create what it believed would be a livable and prosperous city.
Contents
Foreword: Down by the Bay / Graeme Wynn
Introduction: Whose Harbour?
1 Civilizing Nature: Community Property Transformed, 1823-95
2 Conserving Nature: The Education of John William Kerr, 1864-88
3 Boosting Nature: The Contradictions of Industrial Promotion, 1892-1932
4 Organizing Nature: The Search for Recreational Order, 1900-30
5 Planning Nature: The Waterfront Legacy of T.B McQuesten, 1917-40
6 Confining Nature: The Bay as Harbour, 1931-59
7 Unchaining Nature: Gillian Simmons's Backyard, 1958-85
8 Remediating Nature: Hamilton Harbour as an Area of Concern, 1981-2015
Conclusion: Choosing Nature
Notes; Index
