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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 it much more: an ideal introduction to BC labour history containing archival photograph and sidebars rich with historical arcana and a chapter outlining the research that unearthed Gosden’s story and a rich resource for instructors, students, and trade unionists.