Draws on sources to explore the life of Michael Collins and to ask what made him such an extraordinary and complex man. This comprehensive biography investigates Collins' life before becoming a revolutionary and takes a critical look at his rise to power and its consequences.

Few people have had as profound an impact on their country's history in so short a time as Michael Collins had on twentieth-century Ireland. Dead at thirty-one, he remains a hero and an icon both in his native country and abroad. Peter Hart's compelling and comprehensive biography draws on many hitherto unseen sources to explore the life of Michael Collins and to ask what made him such an extraordinary and complex man. Set to become the definitive work, Hart's is the first book fully to investigate Collins' life before becoming a revolutionary and the first to take a critical look at his rise to power and its consequences. 'Brusque, unsentimental and sensible' - "Sunday Independent". 'Excellent...Hart cuts through Collins' aura of secular sainthood, showing him to be a complex figure' - "Daily Telegraph". 'Moves beyond hagiography or demonology and seeks to restore the complexity of real people trying to make history' - "Irish Times". 'A triumph' - "Irish Review".