The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider's View Paperback – October 1, 2010

...even in the foreword of THE OCTOBER CRISIS, 1970: AN INSIDER'S VIEW, William Tetley is blunt about the biggest hurdle to jump in tackling the subject: "This is either novel nor narrative. I have tried to keep to the facts, while my opinion usually appears at the end of each...chapter."To admit so bravely that it is hard for a Canadian or Quebecois author to approach the subject from a completely academic point of view, and thus admit to an attempt to control, rather than eject, their emotions is the first moment in the book where one can see that this will be different.Tetley's book is highly readable, covering the crisis with a concentration on the players inside Quebec. While it gives a great overview of the Federal government and it's proactions and reactions to it, the undoubtedly center players here are Rene Levesque, the Bloc leadership, and the individual members of the FLQ.For Tetley, these are not merely dry historical figures to be moved around like chesspieces: he tries to get inside their heads and make their actions understandable to the reader while avoiding anything approaching moral judgement. It's a tightrope, and Tetley walks it very well.As he states in his foreword, the book is overflowing with citations and quotes from source material, to the point where some researchers on this subject might find the bibliography the most fascinating part of the book. He understands this, and the back 1/5 of the pages almost seem as if they could be a book in themselves.This is an amazing trove of source material, and a very empathetic view of the events of 1970. For scholarly readers, this is worth it's price just for the bibliography alone, and the smooth writing style is accessible to people who are looking for a book to start out their education on the subject.

I lived through this era. And I have read this book before. A thorough, well-reasoned examination of the era in Quebec native-grown terrorism.If you didn't live through this era, you might not believe what actually happened.

Not what I hoped it would be. But it did give facts I had forgotten