Description:Eamon de Valera, whose public career lasted from the 1916 Rising to the conclusion of his Presidency in 1973, is the dominant figure in modern Irish politics. His lifelong preoccupation with the partition of Ireland is the subject of John Bowman's masterly study which draws on hitherto unavailable or unused sources to decipher both de Valera's policy and his legacy on a question still at the heart of Anglo-Irish relations.
Dr Bowman's book has been widely acclaimed as a classic of twentieth-century Irish politics. Bernard Crick suggested that with it, the author 'had proved himself a true member of the great contemporary school of Irish history'. The book won the Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize for works which contribute most to peace and understanding within Ireland and between Britain and Ireland. 9780198226819