Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Lake Ontario has profoundly influenced the historical evolution of North America. For centuries it has enabled and enriched the societies that crowded its edges, from fertile agricultural landscapes to energy production systems to sprawling cities.
In The Lives of Lake Ontario Daniel Macfarlane details the lake’s relationship with the Indigenous nations, settler cultures, and modern countries that have occupied its shores. He examines the myriad ways Canada and the United States have used and abused this resource: through dams and canals, drinking water and sewage, trash and pollution, fish and foreign species, industry and manufacturing, urbanization and infrastructure, population growth and biodiversity loss. Serving as both bridge and buffer between the two countries, Lake Ontario came to host Canada’s largest megalopolis. Yet its transborder exploitation exacted a tremendous ecological cost, leading people to abandon the lake. Innovative regulations in the later twentieth century, such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements, have partially improved Lake Ontario’s health.
Despite signs that communities are re-engaging with Lake Ontario, it remains the most degraded of the Great Lakes, with new and old problems alike exacerbated by climate change. The Lives of Lake Ontario demonstrates that this lake is both remarkably resilient and uniquely vulnerable.
“Despite some progress, the mistreatment of Lake Ontario over the last two centuries continues to undermine its ecological health and role as a key fish and wildlife habitat. The Lives of Lake Ontario advances our understanding of a Great Lake that is often trivialized, building blocks of history and science into a fascinating whole.” Dave Dempsey, author of Great Lakes for Sale
"MacFarlane’s contribution provides a space to think across geographical, technical, social, cultural, and political landscapes. A comprehensive, insightful environmental history of Lake Ontario." NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment
"A deeply researched, authoritative account of the physical phenomena that formed and continue to shape the fourteenth-largest lake in the world … Beyond his ability to distill an abundance of complex scientific detail into crisp, digestible prose, [Macfarlane] truly shines in elucidating the reciprocal relationship between the lake and the people surrounding it." Dan Rubinstein, Literary Review of Canada
"Drawing upon a rich reserve of sources, including US and Canadian state, provincial, federal, and university archives, The Lives of Lake Ontario makes a persuasive case for paying more attention to this 'least appreciated' member of the Great Lakes." H-Environment
"The Lives of Lake Ontario is exceptionally well-written and accessible, not merely an academic text. Macfarlane enriches the history of Canada-U.S. relations, and he skillfully navigates complexities with a human touch." Seaboard Review of Books