A Globe 100 Best Book of 2024

From the bestselling author of Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre Esprit-Radisson

This is the story of the collision of two worlds. In the early 1600s, the Jesuits--the Catholic Church's most ferocious warriors for Christ--tried to create their own nation on the Great Lakes and turn the Huron (Wendat) Confederacy into a model Jesuit state. At the centre of their campaign was missionary Jean de Brébeuf, a mystic who sought to die a martyr's death. He lived among a proud people who valued kindness and rights for all, especially women. In the end, Huronia was destroyed. Brébeuf became a Catholic saint, and the Jesuit's martyrdom became one of the founding myths of Canada.

In this first secular biography of Brébeuf, historian Mark Bourrie, bestselling author of Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, recounts the missionary's fascinating life and tells the tragic story of the remarkable people he lived among. Drawing on the letters and documents of the time--including Brébeuf's accounts of his bizarre spirituality--and modern studies of the Jesuits, Bourrie shows how Huron leaders tried to navigate this new world and the people struggled to cope as their nation came apart. Riveting, clearly told, and deeply researched, Crosses in the Sky is an essential addition to--and expansion of--Canadian history.

The life of David Michael Krueger, who, on his first day pass from his Brockville, Ontario, psychiatric hospital, brutally murdered another patient.

WINNER OF THE 2020 RBC TAYLOR PRIZE - Readers might well wonder if Jonathan Swift at his edgiest has been at work.--RBC Taylor Prize Jury Citation - A remarkable biography of an even more remarkable 17th-century individual ... Beautifully written and endlessly thought-provoking.--Maclean's

Murderer. Salesman. Pirate. Adventurer. Cannibal. Co-founder of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Known to some as the first European to explore the upper Mississippi, and widely as the namesake of ships and hotel chains, Pierre-Esprit Radisson is perhaps best described, writes Mark Bourrie, as an eager hustler with no known scruples. Kidnapped by Mohawk warriors at the age of fifteen, Radisson assimilated and was adopted by a powerful family, only to escape to New York City after less than a year. After being recaptured, he defected from a raiding party to the Dutch and crossed the Atlantic to Holland--thus beginning a lifetime of seized opportunities and frustrated ambitions.

A guest among First Nations communities, French fur traders, and royal courts; witness to London's Great Plague and Great Fire; and unwitting agent of the Jesuits' corporate espionage, Radisson double-crossed the English, French, Dutch, and his adoptive Mohawk family alike, found himself marooned by pirates in Spain, and lived through shipwreck on the reefs of Venezuela. His most lasting venture as an Artic fur trader led to the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company, which operates today, 350 years later, as North America's oldest corporation.

Sourced from Radisson's journals, which are the best first-hand accounts of 17th century Canada, Bush Runner tells the extraordinary true story of this protean 17th-century figure, a man more trading partner than colonizer, a peddler of goods and not worldview--and with it offers a fresh perspective on the world in which he lived.

As Canada heads towards a pivotal election, bestselling author Mark Bourrie charts the rise of Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and considers the history and potential cost of the politics of division.

Six weeks into the Covid pandemic, New York Times columnist David Brooks identified two types of Western politicians: rippers and weavers. Rippers, whether on the right or the left, see politics as war. They don't care about the destruction that's caused as they fight for power. Weavers are their opposite: people who try to fix things, who want to bring people together and try to build consensus. At the beginning of the pandemic, weavers seemed to be winning. Five years later, as Canada heads towards a pivotal election, that's no longer the case. Across the border, a ripper is remaking the American government. And for the first time in its history, Canada has its own ripper poised to assume power.

Pierre Poilievre has enjoyed most of the advantages of the mainstream Canadian middle class. Yet he's long been the angriest man on the political stage. In Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, bestselling author Mark Bourrie, winner of the Charles Taylor Prize, charts Poilievre's rise through the political system, from teenage volunteer to outspoken Opposition leader known for cutting soundbites and theatrics. Bourrie shows how we arrived at this divisive moment in our history, one in which rippers are poised to capitalize on conflict. He shows how Poilievre and this new style of politics have gained so much ground--and warns of what it will cost us if they succeed.

Ninety Fathoms Down explains the history of the Canadian side of the Great Lakes by telling the stories of people whose lives took dramatic turns on the vast lakes.

Three beautiful gothic buildings loom over the Ottawa River just below the historic Chaudiere Falls. They are the seat of Canada's federal government, visited by thousands of people each year. Canada's Parliament Buildings, filled with heraldry and history, instill pride in our country and give visitors a deep sense of being Canadian.

Constructed in controversy, and steeped in decades of political lore, the Parliament Buildings have been the stage for the evolution of Canada from a small colony to one of the great nations of the world. This fascinating book takes you behind the scenes of Parliament Hill, examines the architecture, heraldry, and history of the buildings, and gives readers an understanding of the important role of Parliament in our society. Profusely illustrated with contemporary and historic photographs, this beautiful book belongs on the shelf of everyone who has toured the Parliament Buildings. It will also appeal to those interested in Canadian history and politics.

Many a Midnight Ship brings to life the powerful history of the greatest northern waterway of the North American continent.

These fourteen stories illustrate the majesty of the Great Lakes and the tragedy bestowed upon its waters. From the coffin ship Atlantic, which foundered in 1852 along with some 300 lives, and which salvagers say still has millions of dollars of gold on board, to the burning of the Erie and some 250 Dutch immigrants, to the violent storm that tore the Algoma apart off Isle Royale, where crew and passengers clamored for their lives only twenty yards form shore as treacherous currents prevented most of them from reaching land.

These stories recount not only the calamities the Great Lakes have seen, but the remarkable acts of heroism, courage, and survival that have arisen when humans defy nature.

Flim Flam explores the world of Canadian white-collar crime, a place inhabited by hustlers, wild gamblers, and crazy dreamers. It takes the reader to the Vancouver Stock Exchange, where dream salesmen have peddled wild stories of easy money, through the moose pasture scams of northern Canada, to the con artists who have been drawn to Toronto's financial district. Along the way, you'll meet crooked politicians, a young con man who confessed to a church congregation after he was born again, disbarred lawyers, and the creator of a huge paper fortune who was left with nothing but a wolfskin coat when his real estate empire fell apart.

Greed is a powerful motivator that has taken some Canadians down strange roads. Some have ended up pocketing millions, but many more of Canada's con artists have self-destructed, taking with them the fortunes of the people they bilked. In the end, they've usually fooled themselves, too.

Flim Flam shows that Canadians aren't nearly as dull as we'd like to believe. When it comes to conning each other, we have some of the most colourful and interesting hucksters in the world. This book contains stories from all regions of the country. It will appeal to business and true-crime readers, as well as people who are students of human nature.

A collection of the best journalism from Canada's wars, from the time of the Vikings to the war in Afghanistan. Fighting Words is a collection of the very best war journalism created by or about Canadians at war. The collection spans 1,000 years of history, from the Vikings' fight with North American Natives, through New France's struggle for survival against the Iroquois and British, to the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Rebellions of Lower and Upper Canada, the Fenian raids, the North-West Rebellion, the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, peacekeeping missions, and Afghanistan. Each piece has an introduction describing the limits placed on the writers, their apparent biases, and, in many cases, the uses of the article as propaganda. The stories were chosen for their impact on the audience they were written for, their staying power, and, above all, the quality of their writing.

Nominated for the 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award - Finalist for the 2023 Ottawa Book Award in English Nonfiction - Longlisted for the 2023 National Business Book Award

The remarkable true story of the rise and fall of one of North America's most influential media moguls.

When George McCullagh bought The Globe and The Mail and Empire and merged them into the Globe and Mail, the charismatic 31-year-old high school dropout had already made millions on the stock market. It was just the beginning of the meteoric rise of a man widely expected to one day be prime minister of Canada. But the charismatic McCullagh had a dark side. Dogged by the bipolar disorder that destroyed his political ambitions and eventually killed him, he was all but written out of history. It was a loss so significant that journalist Robert Fulford has called McCullagh's biography one of the great unwritten books in Canadian history--until now.

In Big Men Fear Me, award-winning historian Mark Bourrie tells the remarkable story of McCullagh's inspirational rise and devastating fall, and with it sheds new light on the resurgence of populist politics, challenges to collective action, and attacks on the free press that characterize our own tumultuous era.

A collection of the best journalism from Canada's wars, from the time of the Vikings to the war in Afghanistan.

Fighting Words is a collection of the very best war journalism created by or about Canadians at war. The collection spans 1,000 years of history, from the Vikings' fight with North American Natives, through New France's struggle for survival against the Iroquois and British, to the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Rebellions of Lower and Upper Canada, the Fenian raids, the North-West Rebellion, the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, peacekeeping missions, and Afghanistan.

Each piece has an introduction describing the limits placed on the writers, their apparent biases, and, in many cases, the uses of the article as propaganda. The stories were chosen for their impact on the audience they were written for, their staying power, and, above all, the quality of their writing.