"Canada's Urban Past": Canadian Urban History Conference

Abstract

The abstracts which follow represent most of the papers to be presented at a conference at the University of Guelph, May 12-14, 1977. By way of introduction, several comments should be made about the character of the conference program. First, the program has been designed to emphasize only one of the major concerns of urban history, the city-building process. Ten years ago, in an article in the Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Roy Lubove called for an urban history that was more than synonomous with everything that had happened in cities. Specifically, he suggested a rekindling of the interest Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford had shown in their examination of the formation of the urban environment. In addition to Lubove, several scholars have been influential in giving this kind of direction to urban history, including H. J. Dyos with his Victorian Suburbs (1961) and Sam Bass Warner with Streetcar Suburbs (1962). The extent to which historians, geographers, planners and architects have adopted this approach in Canada is illustrated by the program of this conference. The papers will not cover all of the major topics possible within the general concept of the process of city-building over time, but at least three related topics will be discussed: 1) the factors involved in urban growth; 2) the role of planners, developers and builders in the shaping of cities; 3) the place of government, especially provincial and municipal, in determining urban form.