An analysis of the Anglo-Irish War of 1916–1921 using the framework of a people's war, this study explains how one of the smallest nations on earth emerged victorious against one of the world's most powerful empires. Of the many accounts of the Irish War of Independence, none adequately explains the Irish victory over a force that was superior in technology, industry, military force, and population. While the theorists associated today with the strategies characteristic of a people's war were either not yet born or were unknown to those in the Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein, the war they waged closely fits later revolutionary models.
This is the first critical study of the insurgent and counter-insurgent campaigns in a controversial and often misunderstood conflict. The Republic won in 1921, but what did it win? The Irish succeeded in securing Home Rule on their own terms when England refused to give in. Meanwhile the Crown Forces gained valuable experience in a form of war that would continue to plague them decades later. Appendices include information on the political, military, and paramilitary organizations in Ireland; important Irish political documents; songs of the rebellion; and a critical bibliography.