The grisly murder of a nurse, fierce opposition to measles and smallpox vaccines, death on the wartime battlefield and in the workplace, a crippling 1917 strike, the deadly 1918 flu pandemic, and life on the home front —these are just some of the historic events chronicled in Ron Verzuh's Printer's Devils.

In his presentation to this year's BCHF conference in Princeton, Ron tells the story of a weekly newspaper. The Trail Creek News/Trail News influenced its readers as Trail grew into a small smelter city and prospered.

Printer's Devils is a social history that traces how Trailites responded in times of economic crisis, war and life-threatening disease from1895 to 1925.

Verzuh is a writer, historian and documentary filmmaker. His previous book was called Smelter Wars: A Rebellious Red Trade Union Fights for Its Life in Wartime Western Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2022). Verzuh's work has been published in journals, magazines, newspapers and on websites. He grew up in the West Kootenay where the events in this book took place. Printer's Devils is his fourth book.