Based on extensive archival research he Politics of the Irish Civil War situates the Irish civil war in the general process of decolonization in the twentieth century, and explains why divisions over the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 proved so formative in the development of the Irish state.
Each chapter is devoted to a particular aspect of the war and many new areas are explored. These include the role the doctrine of self-determination played in the Sinn Fein movement, the fate of numerous peace initiatives, the power struggle between de Valera and Liam Lynch within the IRA, and the impact...

Civil war has been a recurring feature of human societies throughout history -- and an essential catalyst for major international conflict. Since 1945, the number of civil wars in the world has grown steadily, bringing devastation on a scale more traditionally associated with international wars.
In spite of this, there is no classic treatise on civil war to compare with the classic works we have on war, revolution, or peace. On the one hand, historians have tended to treat the "big" civil wars, such as the American and the Spanish, in isolation. On the other, social scientists have...