Challenging some conventional memories of World War I, UVic historian Benjamin Isitt has told the little-known story of how and why some 4,200 Canadian soldiers were sent from Victoria to Vladivostok in 1918 to help defeat Bolshevism in From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada's Siberian Expedition, 1917-19 (UBC Press 2010).

In the late 1950s, half of B.C.'s workers belonged to unions. Benjamin Isitt's Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948-1972 (UTP $35) examines the rise of left wing activism in B.C. that resulted in the election of Dave Barrett's NDP government in 1972, focusing the post-war influence of the Communist Party and the CCF from 1948 onwards.

In 2021, Isitt co-authored with Ravi Malhotra Able to Lead: Disablement, Radicalism, and the Political Life of E.T. Kingsley (UBC $89.95) about New York-born double amputee Eugene Kingsley who brought his radical socialism across the border as a founder of the Socialist Party of Canada. Kinsley was considered "one of the most dangerous men in Canada" and he went on to shape a generation of Canadian leftists during a time when it was rare for disabled men to lead. 978-0-7748-6576-0

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada's Siberian Expedition, 1917-1919
Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948-1972

BOOKS:

Able to Lead: Disablement, Radicalism, and the Political Life of E.T. Kingsley (UBC, 2021) $89.95 9780774865777

From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada's Siberian Expedition, 1917-19 (UBC Press 2010) $85 978-0-7748-1801-8

Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948-1972 (UTP 2010) $35 978-1-4426-1105-4

[BCBW 2021]