Until fairly recently, I lived and worked very close to the area this book is about. I walked through parts of what used to be the Ward every day for most of my adult life. I picked this up (at the awesome Spacing store) while staying with my kid in a hotel inside the boundaries of the Ward. 

Did I know much about anything in this book? Not really. 

This is excellent Toronto history — a series of essays of varying lengths, lots of great photography, maps and diagrams of Toronto in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, when the area dominated by commerce and government was mostly homes and small businesses, mostly immigrants, desperately poor. 

The book is easy to pick up and leaf through, and will make you want to go on a little scavenger hunt for the locations it discusses (what’s left of them, anyway). 

On top of that, and what surprised me most, was how the themes haven’t changed — land use, poverty, immigration, the role of government and social services. 

It’s a book I can imagine taking with me back to the city next time I’m there to use as an itinerary for a very interesting walk.