This is a history of Ireland's fight for freedom in the early twentieth century, and the reasons for it--the birth pangs
of the Irish Republic, as it were. It is far more a history of the times than a biography of
Michael Collins as an indiviual human being. He does not even appear until well along in the book, and he is seen primarily, if not exclusively, as a figure in the Revolution--in his
relationship to it, rather than as a person in himself. If one wishes to understand the beginnings of the Revolution (and of the downfall of the British Empire), and the consequences, even today, of what happened then, there is no better book that I have found than this.
There is a detailed index to the book, and an extensive bibliography, as well.