Charles Townsend, Professor of International History, University of Keele, UK

'A marvel of compression and balance.' Brian Farrell '...reflects wide reading and reflection...[Townsend's] treatment is the ideal starting point.' English Historical Review '...combines impressive, and unobtrusive, scholarship with refreshing insight and more than fulfills its stated purpose of making the work of the latest generation of historians more widely accessible.' Irish Review 'A fascinating in-depth look at the country that went from colony in 1900 to economic dynamo by the advent of the 21st century...Coogan has done a masterful job of taking a very complicated history and making it lively reading.' Publisher's Weekly

• Part I - The struggle for statehood / Parnellism and fenianism / Constructive unionism / 'The Battle of Two Civilizations' / The home rule crisis 1906-1914 / The impact of total war 1941-1919 / The republic, Northern Ireland, and the treaty 1919-1921 - Part II - State and nation building / Civil war and partition 1922-1932 / De Valera in power 1932-1946 / The second republic and modernization 1948-1966, The Stormont regime 1920-1972 / The northern crisis 1972-1984 / Peace processes 1984-1998.

Charles Townsend, Professor of International History, University of Keele, UK

'A marvel of compression and balance.' Brian Farrell '...reflects wide reading and reflection...[Townsend's] treatment is the ideal starting point.' English Historical Review '...combines impressive, and unobtrusive, scholarship with refreshing insight and more than fulfills its stated purpose of making the work of the latest generation of historians more widely accessible.' Irish Review 'A fascinating in-depth look at the country that went from colony in 1900 to economic dynamo by the advent of the 21st century...Coogan has done a masterful job of taking a very complicated history and making it lively reading.' Publisher's Weekly

• Part I - The struggle for statehood / Parnellism and fenianism / Constructive unionism / 'The Battle of Two Civilizations' / The home rule crisis 1906-1914 / The impact of total war 1941-1919 / The republic, Northern Ireland, and the treaty 1919-1921 - Part II - State and nation building / Civil war and partition 1922-1932 / De Valera in power 1932-1946 / The second republic and modernization 1948-1966, The Stormont regime 1920-1972 / The northern crisis 1972-1984 / Peace processes 1984-1998.