In this brilliant and thoroughly engaging work Ian McKay sets out to revamp the history of Canadian socialism. Drawing on models of left politics in Marx and Gramsci, he outlines a fresh agenda for exploration of the Canadian left.
In rejecting the usual paths of sectarian or sentimental histories, McKay draws on contemporary cultural theory to argue for an inventive strategy of "reconnaissance." This important, groundbreaking work combines the highest standards of scholarship, and a broad knowledge of current debates in the field. "Rebels, Reds, Radicals" is the introduction to McKay's definitive multi-volume work on the history of Canadian socialism (volume one, "Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920" will be available in November 2008).
Ian McKay teaches at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. His previous books include "Rebels, Reds, Radicals," "For a Working-Class Culture in Canada," and "The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia."