The University of Toronto: A History by Martin L. Friedland (review)

humanities 105 university of toronto quarterly, volume 73, number 1, winter 2003/4 and thus enact policies, such as limiting research funding exclusively to fulltime faculty, which reinforce and perpetuate this myth. Rajagopal=s Hidden Academics not only explodes such myths, but also shows that the perpetuation of these and other myths is useful in the >corporatization= of the university. Most important, Rajagopal reminds us that in >bottom-line= educational policy, contract faculty are an excellent value, and will continue to be, as long as their actual value remains invisible and poorly remunerated. This reality, though, will remain concealed until universities begin regular collection of data on part-time faculty and acknowledge the crucial role they play in the delivery of undergraduate education. Although Rajagopal offers few solutions to the problems she uncovers, her research and critique convincingly argue that, after decades of increasing dependency upon part-time labour, the academy needs to address an inequity which has become systemic, and more disturbingly, indispensable to the expedient administration of post-secondary education. (ANNE GEDDES BAILEY) Martin L. Friedland. The University of Toronto: A History University of Toronto Press. xiii, 764. $60.00 There has been no institutional history of the University of Toronto published since 1927. Martin Friedland admirably remedies this lack on the occasion of the university=s 175th anniversary. A university history should deal with constitutional issues, tell the stories of its parts, note contributions of individuals to the evolution of its functions, and convey a sense of the institution=s impact on the lives of its members. Accomplishing this, while covering almost two centuries of one of the most complicated postsecondary structures in the English-speaking world, is a significant achievement. Friedland organizes his material chronologically, offering >relatively short chapters that ... look at specific issues and events B often turning points.= Along the way, he inserts material on individual faculties, the development of the academic profession, profiles of significant individuals, and the spirit of the times. By returning to such themes in different eras, Friedland conveys a sense of the university as an evolving entity. He succeeds in telling a story that holds the reader=s interest. The volume is divided into eight parts. The first part (>Beginnings=) includes nine chapters, tracing the sixty-year evolution of King=s College /University College up to the Federation Act of 1887, which laid the groundwork for what could be called a university. Parts 2 through 5 (>Federation,= >Aspirations,= >Turbulence,= >Growth=) track, in twenty-three chapters, about seventy years= development B through the two world wars and the Depression B of undergraduate, graduate, and professional faculties, with research and teaching functions. Parts 6 through 8 (>Expandxxxxxxxx 106 letters in canada 2002 university of toronto quarterly, volume 73, number 1, winter 2003/4 ing Horizons,= >Adjustment,= >Raising the Sights=), in ten chapters, take the story a further forty-five or so years, to 1999, presenting what was done to create the modern multiversity, with its panoply of interdisciplinary activities and points of contact with the wider society. In dealing with Toronto=s academic profile, Friedland gives proper credit to the humanities, the federated college structure, and to the Arts and Science Honours Program, as distinguishing features throughout much of the university=s rise to prominence. He also makes it clear that several strong basic science departments and a number of professional faculties, particularly Medicine and Engineering, were equally significant contributors to the university=s stature, based on their rapid growth and research contributions in the early decades of the twentieth century. One strength of the volume is its detailed accounts of the contributions of individual faculty. Friedland also traces the professoriate=s evolving roles in teaching and research and B latterly B as an influential collective force in university politics. Incidents about >academic freedom,= spanning a century, are recounted in lively fashion, for their own significance and as reflecting the milieus of the times. Friedland=s picture of student life is more episodic, but with significant accounts of the struggle for admission of women in the 1880s, the student strike of 1896, athletics in several periods, and the activism of the 1960s. Those who wish for more comprehensive accounts of this...