Examines the birth of the Irish state, and sets it in its European historical context. This book argues that militant republicanism always lacked popular, democratic legitimacy. The mainstream Irish nationalist tradition was moderate and realistic, and it was this nation-building tradition that triumphed in 1922.

Since there are half a dozen of these to every page, even a big sample could hardly do justice to the impact of his writing.' - Charles Townshend, "Irish Political Studies".