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    Able to Lead
    Disablement, Radicalism, and the Political Life of E.T. Kingsley

    Ravi Malhotra (Author), Benjamin Isitt (Author)

    9780774865777

    Paperback / softback, published 1 December 2021

    320 pages, 27 b&w photos, 1 map
    22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.59 kg

    The authors' focus on this historical figure enriches and widens the lens on BC's history. - Janet Nicol (BC Studies)

    Able to Lead... portrays the fractured politics of the B.C. labour left, providing an admiring account of the role of one man in that process… [the book] should achieve its stated goal of encouraging a new perception of the capabilities of disabled people while also prompting a rethink of the early North American left.

    - Ron Verzuh, documentary filmmaker (The Ormsby Review)

    Able to Lead paints a vivid picture of a fascinating political figure whose oratory one would have liked to have experienced first-hand.

    - Giselle Gerolami (Against the Current) ...the book provides a rich and lively account of a dynamic period in the history of the Canadian left— and tantalizing glimpses of an extraordinary man who lived in the thick of it. - John Baglow (Literary Review of Canada) ...Malhotra and Isitt are to be commended for a book that, besides providing extraordinarily useful information on subjects ranging from the ubiquity of railway accidents in the late nineteenth century to the influence of eugenics on Canadian immigration policies at the same time, recognizes that Kingsley, even though he never spoke or wrote of his disability, likely constantly had to make decisions, whether about the class struggle or where to live, that reflected its existence in an ablist world. - Neil Dhingra, University of Maryland (H-Net)

    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.

    Introduction

    1 Incident at Spring Gulch: Disablement, Litigation, and the Birth of a Revolutionary

    2 California Radical: Fighting for Free Speech and Running for Congress in the Socialist Labor Party

    3 Crossing the Line: Eugene Kingsley Arrives in British Columbia

    4 No Compromise: Kingsley and the Socialist Party of Canada

    5 Kingsley and the State

    6 The Twilight Years: Kingsley and the 1920s Canadian Left

    Conclusion

    Appendix 1: Timeline of the Life and Political Times of E.T. Kingsley

    Appendix 2: E.T. Kingsley Election Results

    Appendix 3: Partial Record of E.T. Kingsley's Public Speeches and Lectures

    Appendix 4: Obituary for E.T. Kingsley

    Notes; Index
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