Agitator, educator, organizer, J.B. McLachlan led the coal miners of Nova Scotia in their struggles for union recognition, united them around ideas of industrial democracy and social reconstruction, and defended their cause in the labour wars of the 1920s.

This authoritative biography tells the story of legendary labour leader James Bryson McLachlan, champion of the Cape Breton Coal Miners in the early decades of the twentieth century. Charged with sedition in 1923, McLachlan's case was one of the most notorious political trials ever held in Nova Scotia. By the 1920s and 1930s, McLachlan was known across the country as a spokesman for the radical left in Canada. He helped change the balance of power in industrial society and advanced the struggle for social and economic justice.

J.B. McLachlan: A Biography is a rich portrait of a brilliant early twentieth-century Canadian rebel who helped change the balance of power in industrial society and advance the struggle for social and economic justice.

David Frank is a leading figure in Canadian history. He taught for over 30 years at the University of New Brunswick, and he has written six books on Atlantic Canadian labour history. His articles on labour and social history have appeared in numerous books and journals.

Frank also edited Acadiensis, a leading journal in the study of the Atlantic region, for 12 years, where he also edited many books on the subject at Acadiensis Press. Previous teaching stints saw Frank take posts at the University College of Cape Breton and Atlantic Region Labour Education Centre. He has also contributed journalistic work to Canadian outlets in radio, television, magazines, and newspapers.

Fascinated with J. B. McLachlan from his undergraduate days at Dalhousie University, Frank researched J.B.’s story through the coal towns of Cape Breton through to libraries and archives across Britain, Canada, and the United States. The first edition of this biography is considered a classic in the field of Canadian social and labour history. He lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

David Frank's profile page

• Winner, Clio Award, Canadian Historical Association
• Winner, Dartmouth Book Award (Non-Fiction)
• Short-listed, Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
• Winner, Robert S. Kenny Prize for Labour/Left Studies
• Winner, John W. Dafoe Book Prize

“an outstanding biography . . . the story of Jim McLachlan is the fact behind much of the fiction being produced about Cape Breton ” – Alistair MacLeod, author of No Great Mischief

“a magnificent biography . . . . as clear and as devastating as Zola’s fictional history of a coal town” – Sheldon Currie, author of Margaret’s Museum and Down the Coaltown Road

“believable, dramatic and fully human . . . through the efforts of people like McLachlan we have benefited from a measure of social progress” – James Cullingham, Globe and Mail

“Indispensible” – Joanne Schwartz, Fight On! Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1900-1925

“adds immeasurably to our collective memory as Canadians struggle to maintain respect and dignity for working people” – Ted Schmidt, Catholic New Times

“the most meticulously researched and sensitively written account of any working-class leader in Canadian history” – Craig Heron, York University

“a monumental biography” – Dean Jobb, Chronicle-Herald

“engaging and authoritative” – Colin Howell, Telegraph Journal

“Indispensible” – Joanne Schwartz, Fight On! Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1900-1925

“a social visionary and a great moral exemplar . . . an inspiration for the struggles of the future” – Silver Donald Cameron, author of The Education of Everett Richardson

“a powerfully moving story of an individual who devoted his life to the struggle for social and economic justice” – Scott Burbidge, Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society Journal

“an eloquent reminder of the challenges facing Canadians as we regress toward the very social conditions that McLachlan fought” – Matthew Behrens, Quill & Quire

“adds immeasurably to our collective memory as Canadians struggle to maintain respect and dignity for working people” – Ted Schmidt, Catholic New Times

“a model of what a historical biography should be, and utterly worthy of its subject” – James Covey, The Coast

“a beautifully written book that tells a compelling story, not just of a single individual, but of a people” – Eric Tucker, Osgoode Hall Law Journal

“a lively and necessary slice of Canadian history” – H.J. Kirchhoff, Globe and Mail

“the triumphs, frustrations and failures of the man, his times, and the community he represented” – Ellison Robertson, Our Times

“engaging and authoritative . . . It is the kind of history that McLachlan was calling for” – Colin Howell, Saint Mary’s University

The appearance of this biography of one of Canada's most distinguished labour leaders is a timely event indeed. The product of the sustained scholarly efforts of University of New Brunswick historian David Frank, this is a powerfully moving story of an individual who devoted his life to the struggle for social and economic justice. This is a social rather than a personal biography, and the reader must be satisfied with limited and occasional glimpses of what McLachlan was like as a person. This emphasis should be seen as a strength rather than a weakness, if we value biography as a way to understand the social, political and economic forces that have shaped our history.

Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society Journal