Few people in history have been as mythologized as Michael Collins. Before his death at the age of 31, Collins fought in the Easter Rising, organized the I.R.A., outspied British intelligence, negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and ran the first independent government of Ireland. To this day, millions revere him as the father of modern Ireland. Yet Collins was first and foremost a man who sought power and exercised it ruthlessly. More politician than soldier, he surrounded himself with followers loyal only to him. And his death left behind a troubled legacy: an I.R.A. he could not control, a Northern Ireland problem he did not solve, and a civil war he could not prevent. Drawing on previously unknown sources, historian Hart explores Collins's life and asks what made him such an extraordinary and complex person. -- From publisher description.