Why does Louis Riel matter? Simply because this man of words and action is regularly enlisted, nearly 140 years after he was hanged, to support a wide variety of causes. And sometimes to combat the very same causes. Louis Riel left behind a vast collection of poetry and prose that is in fact a seminal contribution to Canadian literature in French and English. Yet his writings have been largely ignored by both scholars and laypeople. They have written massively about his actions but very little about his words. Based on a comprehensive review of Riel's writing, Morrow uncompromisingly examines Riel's views on vital subjects. These include the term Métis, Métis identity, "Indians," Jews, Islam, Quebec, French Canadians, the Irish, the United States, women, liberalism, and Métis unity. Riel's views might rankle readers today.

Without toning them down, the author establishes nonetheless the intellectual and political environment in which they developed. Weeks before the decisive Battle of Batoche in May 1885, John A. Macdonald referred to Riel as "some sort of half-breed Mahdi" in the Canadian House of Commons. Although Riel likely abhorred being compared to a man guided by the Islamic faith, Macdonald was not totally off track. Both Riel and the Mahdi of Sudan faced the same expanding British military machine. They even faced the same British military "hero," Garnet Wolseley.