Able to Lead

Ravi Malhotra, Benjamin Isitt

ISBN 10: 0774865768 / ISBN 13: 9780774865760

Published by University of British Columbia Press, CA, 2021

About this Item

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.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780774865760

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Able to Lead
• Publisher: University of British Columbia Press, CA
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774865768
• ISBN 13: 9780774865760
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 700 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A life of socialist activist Eugene Kingsley, now in paperback.

After an accident made him both a double amputee and a political radical, Eugene T. Kingsley dedicated his life to socialist reform. Able to Lead retraces the radical’s inspiring political journey from San Francisco soapboxes to prominence in Canadian politics. In organizing the Socialist Party of Canada, Kingsley shaped a generation of leftists during a time when the country’s laws prohibited immigration by people with disabilities. This book explores the life and work of this fascinating thinker, who left a rich inheritance to the modern left.
 

About the Authors

Ravi Malhotra is professor of law and rehabilitation sciences at the University of Ottawa and coauthor of Exploring Disability Identity and Disability Rights through Narratives: Finding a Voice of Their Own.

Benjamin Isitt is a lawyer, historian, and legal scholar based in Lekwungen territory (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, 1948–72; co-author, with Ravi Malotra, of Able to Lead: Disablement, Radicalism, and the Political Life of E.T. Kingsley; and coauthor, with Bob Williams and Thomas Bevan, of Using Power Well: Bob Williams and the Making of British Columbia.