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Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Able to Lead

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

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.
 

320 pages | 27 halftones, 1 map | 6 x 9

Biography and Letters

Sociology: Social Change, Social Movements, Political Sociology


Reviews

Able to Lead restores E.T. Kingsley as a major figure among radical labour activists—all the more notable given his visible disability, which was not common among prominent political activists of his time. A welcome addition to disability history.

Geoffrey Reaume, York University

Malhotra and Isitt argue that Kingsley was a—perhaps the—central figure in Canadian socialism before the First World War. This is an informed and nuanced history of disability and legal history.

James Naylor, Brandon University

Able to Lead is a striking and essential retrieval of a life previously untold. As a disabled, working class radical, Kinglsey's story is a novel addition to North American biographies.
 

James Muir, University of Alberta

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