From: History: Review of New Books | Date: September 22, 1997| Author: | COPYRIGHT 1997 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Tom Garvin, a professor of politics at University College Dublin, has written a stimulating book about the formation of the Irish state during what he refers to as the "long 1922," the period stretching from the truce of July 1921 to the effective end of the Civil War in May 1923. Garvin argues persuasively that the establishment of a democratic Irish state was the result of the impact of a "nationalist pragmatism," exemplified by the attitudes and actions of the pro-treaty and Free State leadership rather than the "moral republicanism" of the fundamentalist, romantic, and ...