A CITY IN THE MAKING: PROGRESS. PEOPLE AND PERILS IN VICTORIAN TORONTO. Armstrong, F.H. Toronto, Dundurn Press, 1988. 358pp, cloth, $29.95, ISBN 1-55002-026-9. CIP Adult/ Post-secondary Reviewed by Adele Ashby Volume 17 Number 3 1989 May University of Western Ontario historian Frederick Armstrong has pulled together fifteen articles written over a twenty-five-year period to create this anthology. It is divided into four parts, each with its own introduction. Part I, "The Urban Background," covers the physical layout of the city in 1834, its expanding frontiers from 1825 to 1850, and its first railway venture. Part II. "The Most Controversial Torontonian: William Lyon Mackenzie," examines the York riots of 1832. Mackenzie's performance as mayor in 1834, Mackenzie as strike-breaker in the 1836 printers' strike, and the reasons why, despite the evidence, he remains a hero of Canadian history. Part III. "Types of Torontonians." looks at an upwardly mobile Scottish immigrant family; the black community in the late 1840s; an English veteran of the Napoleonic wars who became a captain on Lake Ontario; William Hay, an architect; and Andrew Mercer, origins unknown. Part IV, "Disasters and Recoveries." explores the first great fire of 1849, the rebuilding that followed, and the second great fire in 1904. Included are a preface, introduction, notes, bibliography, an index, and thirty-four Illustrations. The work is academic in nature and there are a number of minor irritations, such as the use of sex-biased language and repetition across articles. Recommended for Canadian history collections. Adele Ashby, Toronto, Ont.