Michèle Dagenais. Montreal, City of Water: an Environmental History
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Document generated on 09/25/2021 10:37 p.m. Scientia Canadensis Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine Revue canadienne d'histoire des sciences, des techniques et de la médecine Michèle Dagenais. Montreal, City of Water: An Environmental History. xx + 231 pp., plus figs., bibl., index. Translated by Peter Feldstein. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017. $29.95 (paperback). ISBN 9780774836234 Annmarie Adams Volume 41, Number 1, 2019 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065961ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065961ar See table of contents Publisher(s) CSTHA/AHSTC ISSN 1918-7750 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Adams, A. (2019). Review of [Michèle Dagenais. Montreal, City of Water: An Environmental History. xx + 231 pp., plus figs., bibl., index. Translated by Peter Feldstein. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017. $29.95 (paperback). ISBN 9780774836234]. Scientia Canadensis, 41(1), 73–74. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065961ar Copyright © Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association / This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit Association pour l'histoire de la science et de la technologie au Canada, 2019 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 73 | Scientia Canadensis Vol 40 No 1 Book Reviews Comptes Rendus Book Reviews / Comptes rendus Michèle Dagenais. Montreal, City of early publications is an emphasis on Water: An Environmental History. xx + 231 Montreal’s unique location, in the pp., plus figs., bibl., index. Translated centre of the Hochelaga archipelago by Peter Feldstein. Vancouver: UBC at the meeting of the St. Lawrence Press, 2017. $29.95 (paperback). ISBN and Ottawa Rivers. In the subsequent 9780774836234 six chapters, Dagenais presents a lineup of significant events and topics Montreal, City of Water is a welcome that shaped the island-city’s water translation by Peter Feldstein of management into distinctive eras: the Michèle Dagenais’ earlier book demolition of the city’s walls in the Montréal et l’eau (Boréal, 2011). An early nineteenth century, the design innovative take on Montreal’s complex of the harbor, the rise of the science history, the book is an environmental, of sanitation and water treatment, rather than strictly urban history of ecological concerns, the construction of Canada’s second-largest city. Written the St. Lawrence Seaway, and even last for historians interested in a wide year’s 375th anniversary of the city. An range of topics—Quebec, urbanism, implicit argument of the book is that architecture, public health, and water has been a constant, rather than municipal politics— Montreal, City of episodic concern to Montrealers for Water explores water as both a physical more than 200 years. and social/cultural attribute. While The book clearly satisfies the engineers, doctors, and other experts, author’s stated intention, articulated for example, struggled to assess and in the Introduction, “to reconstruct manage the city’s water supply, H2O the ways in which water and its uses simultaneously shaped the city’s image have intertwined with the City of and social relations. Notably, Dagenais Montreal throughout its history” and sees the relation of city and water “to attempt a reconstruction of the as mutually dynamic, avoiding any dynamics governing the conception, suggestion that water determined the definition, and lived experience of the morphology of Montreal: “Montreal’s collective relationship with water” (5). history is discussed with reference to Additionally, the book is not a heroic water as a constitutive dimension of its tale of individuals who tamed the river development” (4). and the city; this is truly a history of the Dagenais’ argument for the shared/public ways Montreal water has significant role of water in the evolution been engineered, controlled, cleaned, of Montreal unfolds chronologically moved, harnessed, exploited, enjoyed, in a clear, almost linear structure. The and imagined. In the book’s conclusion, book begins with a chapter reviewing Dagenais refers to this as “the process the main publications on Montreal in of co-construction of the city,” a the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fascinating concept for architectural outlining the ways water has been historians like me. depicted. Especially important in these The strength of Montreal, City of Water Canadian Science & Technology Historical Association www.cstha-ahstc.ca L’Association pour l’histoire de la science et de la technologie au Canada 74 | Scientia Canadensis Vol 41 No 1 Book Reviews Comptes Rendus is that it links the history of a major city disappointed in Dagenais’ portrayal with larger scales of nature, weather, of the history of the river as a series geography, and geology, as well as its of technical “fixes” to water-based comprehensive use of textual sources, problems (172). from urban planning regulations to These are minor shortcomings. travel documents. Dagenais’ use of Montreal, City of Water is full of insights. visual sources is less convincing. While One is that the image of the city her analysis of maps is compelling, they morphed from being an island, to being are poorly reproduced and hard to a riverfront city (as the significance read (and sidewise). Photographs are of Rivière des Prairies or “Back included without critical commentary, River” disappeared). Additionally, as if they are objective evidence of Dagenais shows how Montrealers real situations. Additionally, some went from seeing the St Lawrence visual material is incorrectly captioned as a natural amenity to a tool of (for example, in Figure 11, the urban infrastructure (91). Indeed, photographer is Alexander Henderson, a major theme in the book is the rather than Anderson). tensions arising from our use of the Somewhat surprising to me as a St. Lawrence River as both a source historian of architecture is the absence of water and as a site to discharge of attention paid to Expo 67, a moment wastewater. An unforgettable moment which focused the world’s attention on in the book is when Dagenais illustrates two islands in the St. Lawrence River, how identity politics, particularly including Île Notre-Dame, constructed related to sociolinguistic divides, were from scratch in an enormous feat of literally “channeled … through the engineering linking city and river. material fact of the water supply systems” Historians of science and technology (91).�For this Montrealer, reading will likely be drawn to Chapter 5, which Dagenais’ book means I will go from explores the Rivière des Prairies as seeing Montreal as a place where water the site of a massive hydro-electric is invisible, to seeing it everywhere. dam, which cut the river in two and thus prevented shipping. In general, Annmarie Adams however, they may be somewhat McGill University Canadian Science & Technology Historical Association www.cstha-ahstc.ca L’Association pour l’histoire de la science et de la technologie au Canada.