Rebel Life (2nd ed.)

Book excerpt: Extensively revised throughout and including a brand-new chapter, Rebel Life chronicles the life of labour organizer, revolutionary, anarchist and labour spy Robert Gosden. This new edition includes new information about Gosden’s career that has come to light since the first edition was published in 1999. Canada’s west coast was rife with upheaval in the second and third decades of the twentieth century. At the centre of the turmoil is Robert Gosden, migrant labourer turned radical activist–turned police spy. In 1913, he publicly recommends assassinating Premier Richard McBride to resolve the miners’ strike. By 1919, he is urging Prime Minister Robert Borden to “disappear” key labour radicals to quelch rising discontent. What happened? Rebel Life plumbs the enigma that was Gosden, but is much more: it is an introduction to BC labour history. With its archival photograph and sidebars rich with historical arcana, and a chapter outlining the research that unearthed Gosden’s story, Rebel Life is a rich resource for instructors, students, and trade unionists, and an ideal introduction to the historian’s craft.