Eugene T. Kingsley led an extraordinary life. Born in mid-nineteenth-century New York,y 1890 he was a railway brakeman in Montana. An accident left him a double amputee and politically radicalized, and his socialist activism that followed took him north of the border where he eventually was considered by the government to be “one of the most dangerous men in Canada”.Able to Lead traces Kingsley’s political journey from soapbox speaker in San Francisco to prominence in the Socialist Party of Canada. Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt illuminate a figure who shaped a generation of Canadian leftists during a time when it was uncommon for disabled men to lead. They examine Kingsley’s endeavours for justice against the Northern Pacific Railway, and how Kingsley’s life intersected with immigration law and free-speech rights.Able to Lead brings a turbulent period in North American history to life, highlighting Kingsley’s profound legacy for the twenty-first-century political left.
Les mer
Able to Lead tells the forgotten story of the life of double amputee E.T. Kingsley, a pioneering politician, and labour and justice activist.
Introduction1 Incident at Spring Gulch: Disablement, Litigation, and the Birth of a Revolutionary2 California Radical: Fighting for Free Speech and Running for Congress in the Socialist Labor Party3 Crossing the Line: Eugene Kingsley Arrives in British Columbia4 No Compromise: Kingsley and the Socialist Party of Canada5 Kingsley and the State6 The Twilight Years: Kingsley and the 1920s Canadian LeftConclusionAppendix 1: Timeline of the Life and Political Times of E.T. KingsleyAppendix 2: E.T. Kingsley Election ResultsAppendix 3: Partial Record of E.T. Kingsley’s Public Speeches and LecturesAppendix 4: Obituary for E.T. KingsleyNotes; Index
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The authors’ focus on this historical figure enriches and widens the lens on BC’s history.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780774865777
Publisert
2021
Utgiver
Vendor
University of British Columbia Press
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
320

Biographical note

Ravi Malhotra is a professor in the Faculty of Law and cross-appointed to the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Ottawa. He is the co-author, with Morgan Rowe, of Exploring Disability Identity and Disability Rights through Narratives: Finding a Voice of Their Own. Benjamin Isitt is a historian and legal scholar based in Victoria, British Columbia. He is the author of From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917–19 and Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948–1972, among other publications. Malhotra and Isitt are also co-editors of Disabling Barriers: Social Movements, Disability History and the Law.