Charles Townshend is the author of the highly praised Easter 1916:The Irish Rebellion. His other books include The British Campaigns in Ireland, 1919-21 and When God Made Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Making of Iraq, 1914-21.
Charles Townshend's The Republic . . . nails the Irish revolutionary events of 1918-23 with his inimitable kind of forensic panache -- Roy Foster * Times Literary Supplement BOOKS OF THE YEAR * A well-sourced, severely objective account of the origins and courses of the wars that followed the Easter Rising * Irish Catholic * A great read ... it has certainly set a very high standard for others to measure up to -- Marianne Elliott * Times Higher Education * For those interested in a reliable and empathetic introduction to the topic, this is now the best place to start * BBC History Magazine * Magisterial ... intensely gruelling but hugely impressive ... for people who prefer to know the facts ... [a] fine achievement of breathing new life into a subject that some historians might assume had already been done to death * Sunday Business Post * Charles Townshend's monumental work [is] bold in ambition, scope and execution ... a work of broad and confident understanding, characterised by a uniform care in its approach to complex and controversial material ... An intensely compelling and often discomfiting narrative, which candidly explores four years of personal and intimate violence * Tablet * Highly detailed and rich ... [a] magisterial and judicious narrative ... this must surely be one of the definitive texts on this period of Anglo-Irish history -- Mary Kenny * Literary Review * [A] tour de force ... wonderful ... brilliantly written history ... Townshend's book can only inspire admiration -- John Lee * Irish Mail on Sunday * Electric ... [a] magisterial and essential book -- Roy Foster * Irish Times *