Expressive Acts: Celebrations and Demonstrations in the Streets of Victorian Toronto

"With its multi-faceted explorations of a wide range of public political, religious, and social celebrations and demonstrations in Victorian Toronto, Expressive Acts shows how vibrant the city’s street culture was in this period. This well-researched and cogently argued study calls our attention to the ways that gender, religion, class, and race were integral to Toronto’s public culture."

Cecilia Morgan, Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto

"Expressive Acts is a major accomplishment of research and writing. With a storyteller's eye for the good detail, Radforth digs deep into the rowdy public sphere of nineteenth-century Toronto."

Steve Penfold, Professor of History, University of Toronto

"Expressive Acts is a masterclass in historiography. While it explains why things happened, the storytelling also invites readers to witness for themselves the ways in which mid-Victorian masculinities in Toronto competed and performed in the streets, in Parliament, and in the press for power."

John C. Walsh, Co-Director, Carleton Centre for Public History and Associate Professor of History, Carleton University