FROM HOGTOWN TO DOWNTOWN: THE HISTORY OF TORONTO IN 10 WEEKS

The history of Toronto is filled with fascinating stories that teach us about ourselves and our community. In this ten-week online course, we'll explore the city's past from a time long before it was founded, through its days as a rowdy frontier town, and all the way to the sprawling megacity we know today. How did Toronto become the multicultural metropolis of the twenty-first century? The answer involves everything from duels to broken hearts to pigeons.

Registration now open! The course begins January 22, 2023!

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TORONTO'S MOST NOTORIOUS MURDERS

Toronto has a bloody past. It's filled with stories of chilling crimes stretching back to the days when the city was founded. And while these tales may send shivers up our spines, they also have a lot to teach us about the place we call home. In this online course, we'll explore the history of the city through the stories of its most infamous homicides. From gangsters and serial killers to housemaids and schoolchildren, we'll meet the murderers who've been terrorizing Toronto for more than 200 years.

This course will return in the spring of 2023!

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A BOOZY HISTORY OF TORONTO

Alcohol has always been a dramatic part of life in Toronto — from the days of colonial treachery to modern debates over drinking in parks. In this four-week online course, we'll meet drunken rebels, beer-bashing mayors, notorious bootleggers, and alcoholic politicians. We'll witness booze-soaked murders, prohibition-era shootouts, and the kidnapping of one Canada's wealthiest brewers — plus, the bitter fight over whether drinking should be allowed at all. To truly understand Toronto, it helps to understand how this city has been shaped by centuries of people getting drunk.

This course will return in the summer of 2023!

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FROM SANDLOT TO SKYDOME: THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL IN TORONTO

Baseball was being played in Toronto more than a century before the Blue Jays were born. In this 4-week online course, we'll explore the game's evolution in our city — from the days when it was a working class sport played by "undesirables" to Joe Carter jumping for joy in front of 50,000 screaming fans. Along the way, we'll meet everyone from con artists and kidnappers to eccentric millionaires and feminist icons — the people who've made Toronto baseball what it is… and helped transform our city in the process.

This course will return in the summer of 2023!

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A SUPERNATURAL HISTORY OF TORONTO

You can learn a lot about a city through the stories of the strange things said to lurk in its shadows. In four online lectures, we'll explore Toronto's past through tales of phantoms, monsters and mythical beasts. Whether it's the terrifying creature spotted in the tunnels beneath Cabbagetown, the sea serpent rumoured to live in the depths of Lake Ontario, or the unicorns hidden all over town, the supernatural stories told about our city illuminate the history of the place we call home.

This course will return in the autumn of 2023!

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A VERY GROSS HISTORY OF TORONTO

Ewww. Sure, Toronto has a reputation for being a remarkably clean city. But it also has a long history of being a filthy, disgusting mess. From its days as a muddy frontier town with mysteriously green puddles collecting in its streets to hordes of rats swarming the slopes of the Don Valley, we'll spend four lectures digging into some of the ickiest, smelliest, slimiest stories Toronto history has to offer. And we'll learn a lot about our city and how it works in the process.

This course will return in late 2023!

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GIVE A COURSE AS A GIFT

Looking for a unique gift for a Toronto lover in your life? I thought you might be! So, now you can give them the gift of an online Toronto history course. Any one of my four- or five-week courses is available on topics that range from murder to ghosts to baseball to booze.

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