The Making of the October Crisis

Shortlisted for the 2019 John W. Dafoe Book Prize
A Hill Times Best Book of 2018

“In the current age of terrorism, the merit of this thorough, compelling book is the timely way Jenish reminds us of the scale and intensity of this previous cycle of political violence. . . . A veteran of long-form journalism, Jenish knows how to gather tidbits from disparate sources—police reports, coroner inquests, newspaper clippings—and weave them to recreate narrative scenes, crafting a more appealing read for the general public than other works of the same scope.” —The Globe and Mail

“Fascinating, frightening. . . . The Making of the October Crisis is a book that finally gives a complete, well-rounded, factual account of one of the darkest times in modern Canadian history.” —Montreal Times 

“In these times of severe hate and violence in the United States, D’Arcy Jenish’s The Making of the October Crisis . . . is a stern reminder that we are not immune to domestic terrorism flamed by nationalism. . . . Jenish’s talent is in being able to tie all the events of this infamous decade together.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“[D’Arcy Jenish] has written a brisk, well-researched and richly detailed account of the ‘two hundred bombings, dozens of bank robberies, six deaths and two kidnappings’ that jangled Quebec’s nerves from early 1963 until the fateful fall of 1970. . . . For those who have forgotten much of the detail of the October Crisis and its roots, and for those for whom it’s undiscovered territory, Jenish has written a must-read guide.” —Canada’s History

“An authoritative work on the period.” —The Guardian (UK)

“What I found fascinating about this book was it didn’t zero in on the events of that October itself. It started 10 years earlier. The author carefully laid out where the unrest came from. I could relate with some of that unrest as an Indigenous person. I could understand some of the fear that francophones were having around their culture and their language. He carefully laid out how the political idealism and the radical break off that led to this October Crisis, the kidnapping of two government officials and the eventual death of a Canadian minister.” —Candy Palmater, CBC.ca