Books by Robert Cruise

Fiction

Temporal Revolution
Temporal Revolution

A powerful tale of a family's fight for liberty in Revolutionary France.

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The Ruins
The Ruins

A divided family confronts Cold War realities in postwar Germany.

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Bird of Prey
Bird of Prey

A former revolutionary reckons with betrayal, exile, and legacy.

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Non-Fiction

Understanding Canada
Understanding Canada: A Simple Guide to Canadian Politics (First Edition)

A clear and accessible guide to Canada’s political system, its origins, and ongoing evolution.

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Upcoming Series: The Unquiet North

This definitive six-volume series explores Canada's contested identity and tumultuous history throughout the 20th century.

Series Synopsis: The Unquiet North: A History of Canada in the 20th Century is a definitive six-volume history by historian and writer Robert Cruise, tracing Canada’s emergence from colony to conflicted nation-state through the seismic political, social, and cultural transformations of the modern era.

Far from a peaceful ascent into stability and global respectability, Cruise presents a more truthful portrait of a country forged in friction. Across wars and recessions, insurrections and referendums, migration waves and constitutional crises, Canada has repeatedly redrawn the boundaries of who belongs—and who decides. What emerges is not a myth of unity, but a long, often uneasy negotiation between ideals and realities, peoples and power.

Each volume blends academic depth with journalistic clarity, weaving archival research, political analysis, and narrative storytelling into an expansive portrait of a country too often defined by silence. From the prairies to Parliament, from conscription riots to peacekeeping missions, from residential schools to global trade deals, Cruise uncovers the hidden architecture of a nation built on contradiction and contested memory.

Spanning the years from 1896 to 2001, the series examines Canada at home and abroad—as imperial subject, warrior nation, welfare state, Cold War watchman, and globalized democracy-in-progress. It is a sweeping, unflinching, and timely reappraisal of the country’s most pivotal century.

The Unquiet North asks: What does it mean to be Canadian in a land never fully at peace with itself?