An Historian Beyond the University
With my work now, I try to share engaging and unexpected stories — history that will catch people’s attention — and then connect those stories to their broader historical context. The story of the Toronto Circus Riot for instance — sparked by a brawl between clowns and firefighters at a downtown brothel — has a lot to teach us about the influence of the Orange Order and systems of power in Victorian Toronto. My hope is that if I can catch someone’s attention, provide them with some of that broader context, and point them toward the work of historians who’ve explored that context more deeply, that person might be curious enough to want to carry on learning more.