Description: Lake Ontario has materially enabled and enriched the societies that have crowded its edges, from fertile agriculture landscapes to energy production systems to sprawling cities. The Lives of Lake Ontario examines the myriad ways Canada and the United States have used and abused this remarkably resilient and uniquely vulnerable resource.
Brief description: Daniel Macfarlane is associate professor in the School of Environment, Geography, and Sustainability at Western Michigan University and the author of Natural Allies: Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations.
Review Quotes: "Engaging and accessible, The Lives of Lake Ontario fills gaps in our knowledge of lakefront geographies by considering the lake itself as an organizing principle. This re-centering of key regional features generates insights into the economic and environmental history of the region that have been overlooked by land-oriented studies, giving water its due in the history of this watery centre of the continent." Jennifer Bonnell, author of Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto's Don River Valley