This book of fifteen essays in co-operative scholarship deals with a most contentious period of modern Irish history, that is, with the period between the Easter Rising of 1916 and the first year of the new Irish Free State government. It is a pioneering work in that it is the first book to deal intensively and from many viewpoints with a decade that included the Irish war of independence, the efforts of Irish and British leaders to arrive at a satisfactory settlement, the intricate Treaty negotiations, and the tragic civil war and it's long bitter aftermath. The ideologies of the period are confused though the ideals are often simple and commanding. The book began as a series of lectures broadcast by Radio Eireann in 1963 and 1964 under the general title of the Thomas Davis Lectures, named in honour of the Irish nationalist thinker.