William Thomas, Architect, 1799–1860 by Glenn McArthur and Annie Szamosi, and: Toronto Architect Edmund Burke by Angela Carr, and: Edward James Lennox: ‘Builder of Toronto’ by Marilyn M. Litvak (review)

234 LETTERS IN CANADA 1996 The book can be read with profit by engineers, historians, and sociologists . The great merit of this book is its comparative approach. Historians like ' Paul Veyne have suggested that the only history is comparative history. Kranakis has provided an excellent example of this, and more books like hers are needed. She is und,eterred by allergies some may have in dealing with 'national' technologies, seeing therein the danger of strengthening simplistic or racialist stereotypes of national character. Hers is a resolutely cultural and institutional history solidly tied to two representative careers. As such it stands beside works such as Thomas Hughes's, on electrical power systems in the United States, Britain, and Germany, as an example of what the history of technology should have in greater abundance. (JANIS LANGINS) Glenn McArthur and Annie Szamosi. William Thomas, Architect, 1799-1860 Archives of Canadian Art. Carleton University Press. xviii, 150 . $39.95 Angela Carr. Toronto Architect Edmund Burke McGill-Queen's University Press 1995· xiv, 234· $44.95 Marilyn M. Litvak. Edward James Lennox: 'Builder ofToronto' Dundurn Press 1995. xviii, 118. $19-95 As recently as a few years ago, even the most voracious reader could be forgiven for assuming that Canada had no architectural history at all. In 1980, the third edition of the Penguin Dictionary ofArchitecture included, for the first time, an entry on Canadian architecture. It began: LHistory and geography combined to make Canada a colony first of France, then of Britain and finally, a nation entirely dependent for its continuing existence - unacknowledged as the fact may be - on the armed forces of a benevolent neighbouring power.' The notion that the American military had not only protected our sovereignty but shaped our architecture was a jarring one; clearly the time had come for the story of Canadian architecture to be told by Canadians. Toronto, our largestcity,has beensomewhatbetterserved inthis respect than other parts of the COlll1try. Excellent work has been produced by such writers as Eric Arthur, Stephen Otto, Douglas Richardson, William Kilbourn, William Dendy, and others. Collectively, however, the work of these writers has produced a rather uneven product - not in tenns of quality, which has been very high, but in terms of such considerations as scope, length, and intended audience. Never has there been a critical mass suggesting that a comprehensive body of work was being created which would form the coreofserious study ofCanadianarchitecture in the future. HUMANITIES 235 · This may be changing. Harold Kalman's two-volume A History ofCanadian Architecture provided a much-needed overview in 1994. And since then, three monographs have arrived on major Toronto architects: William Thomas, Architect, 1799-1860; Toronto Architect Edmund Burke; and Edward James Lennox: 'Builder ofToronto., William Thomas, the subject of Glenn McArthur and Annie Szamosi's excellent biography, was one of the early leaders of the architectural profession in Canada. Among his best-known designs are St Michael's Catholic CathedralinToronto, the BrockMonument at Queenston Heights, and Toronto's St Lawrence Hall. McArthur and Szamosi begin by chronicling Thomas's English career - not just out of biographical interest, but because the English philosophical context is crucial for understanding Canadian architecture in the second half "Of the nineteenth century. Thomas's emigration to Canada'occurred in 1843 when he was forty-four years old. For Thomas, it was probably an escape from business volatility and an over-crowded profession; for Toronto it marked the arrival ofup-todate architectural theory, particularly with respect to the Gothic Revival. William Thomas's position upon arrival in Canada mirrors that of much of Upper Canada at the time. Very much an Englishman in tastes, values, and expectations, he fotmd himself needing to assimilate these attitudes into a new social, economic, and geographic reality. The ingenuity and flexibility which he brought to the problem are reflected in such diverse work as the robust classicism of Guelph Town Hall, the elegant, understated grandeur of the Brock Monument, and the idiosyncratic Gothic detailing of Thomas's own home, Oakham House. The range of Thomas's stylistic ability, as well as his capacity to adapt to virtually any building type (from churches to public buildings to private homes to schools to...