Toronto-based environmental historian Ryan O’Connor has won the 2015 J.J. Talman Award, administered by the Ontario Historical Society, for The First Green Wave: Pollution Probe and the Origins of Environmental Activism in Ontario (UBC Press).

The prize honours the best book from the previous three years that takes up the topic of Ontario’s social, economic, political, or cultural history. The First Green Wave outlines the emergence of Ontario’s environmental movement from the 1960s–80s.

O’Connor was presented with the award at the OHS annual general meeting at the Ontario Legislative Assembly on June 11.