Big Lives

LABOUR BIOGRAPHIES and autobiographies present their readers with a vexing challenge. We are aware that this genre offers an all too rare opportunity to peer into the lives of working-class activists denied due appreciation or explication by a culture that celebrates wealth and privilege. At their best, labour biographies provide engrossing accounts of the lives of people who made a difference. Drawn into the Unfolding narrative we read on anxiously to see what new travails face our protagonist. Will it be a tense bargaining session with management, a fractious confrontation with an unruly union local, passing a key resolution at the big convention, or a restless night spent in the police lockup. In a modern age largely devoid of authentic leaders we seek instruction from past exemplars. At times

Art history · Biography · Political science · Canadian Identity and History · History