Eamon De Valera (Paperback, New edition)

This is the most authoritative short biography of the man who dominated Irish life and politics for much of the twentieth century. De Valera took part in the 1916 Rising and after the execution of the leaders emerged as the country's leading revolutionary. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and spent the next ten years in the political wilderness. He was triumphantly returned to power in 1932, and during sixteen years' uninterrupted tenure of office he dismantled many of the Treaty's provisions, rewrote the Irish Constitution, maintained Irish neutrality in World War II and promoted economic and cultural nationalism. He served two further terms as head of government in the 1950s and was President of Ireland from 1959 until retirement in 1973. His impact on modern Irish history is equalled only by that of O'Connell and Parnell in the previous century.