Collins, Michael Books

Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys

Michael Collins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Carrying The Fire: An Astronauts Journeys by Michael Collins 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was reading Deke! By Donald K. (Deke) Slayton and Michael Cusset. Deke Slayton was the highly respected chief astronaut and godfather to the astronauts of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions; In this book, I noted a positive reference to Michael Collins's book Carrying The Fire so I figured this as a must read.
Michael Collins takes the reader through the stages of astronaut training and spaceship design and his own flights of Gemini 10 and the pioneering Apollo 11 with self- depreciating humour and irony. He manages to present a great amount of technical detail in an easily understood fashion in an articulate, intelligent, flowery, almost British manner.
With a forward by Charles Lindbergh himself, this book is nearly 500 pages but seems only half that by the man who stood station 60 miles above Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on that historic first lunar landing.

Editorial Review:

The Gemini 10 and Apollo 11 astronaut tells first hand of his journeys into space and his arrival on the moon.

Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland

Tim Pat Coogan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent Book 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Although the pages and the sophisticated writing style might intimidate one, if you stick to it and read the book to the end, you will NOT regret it. It was my first book in Irish History and I have learned so much from reading it. This book is amazing beyond words. If you buy it, you won't reget it.

Michael Collins: The Man who made Irelaand 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is an extarodinary book about an extraordinary man. It is well wriiten, it is exciting and easy to read. It gives a wonderful insight into the life and times of Ireland during this remarkable time

Editorial Review:

When the Irish nationalist Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he observed to Lord Birkenhead that he may have signed his own death warrant. In August 1922 that prophecy came true when Collins was ambushed, shot and killed by a compatriot, but his vision and legacy lived on. Tim Pat Coogan's biography presents the life of a man whose idealistic vigor and determination were matched by his political realism and organizational abilities. This is the classic biography of the man who created modern Ireland.

Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years

Michael J. Collins

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Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate and unprepared. All too soon, the euphoria of beginning his career as an orthopedic resident gives way to the feeling he is a counterfeit, an imposter who has infiltrated a society of brilliant surgeons. This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural hospitals, a family that grows larger every year, and a laughable income. Collins' good nature helps him over some of the rough spots but cannot spare him the harsh reality of a doctor's life. Every day he is confronted with decisions that will change people's lives-or end them-forever. A young boy's leg is mangled by a tractor: risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately? A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip: go through a painful hip operation even though she has only months to live? Like a jolt to the system, he is faced with the reality of suffering and death as he struggles to reconcile his idealism and aspiration to heal with the recognition of his own limitations and imperfections. Unflinching and deeply engaging, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a humane and passionate reminder that doctors are people too. This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.

Mick: The Real Michael Collins

Peter Hart

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Revisonist rubbish....... 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This account portrays Collins as cold, calculating, incompetent and a sly opportunist...without any real skills or leadership. Every aspect of his life is presented as a lie, this is revisionist histroy on the level of David Irving...

Utter Tripe 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Hart,we get it - you've an opinion that is contrary to history. Yet you do not put forth any evidence in support of your contrarian views.

Editorial Review:

Few leaders in history have been as mythologized as Michael Collins. Before his death at 31, he had fought in the Easter Rising, organized the IRA and out-spied British intelligence, negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and run the first independent government in Ireland. Peter Hart’s groundbreaking biography restores humanity to this mythical figure. Drawing on previously unknown sources, delving into Collins’s pre-revolutionary past, and assessing the methods—and the costs—of his rise to power, Mick reveals a man of often ruthless ambition, more politician than soldier, whose friendships went no farther than his interests. A work as thrilling as it is authoritative.

Michael Collins and the Troubles: The Struggle for Irish Freedom 1912-1922

Ulick O'Connor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good, But Probably Mistitled 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

O'Connor's title suggests that this book is strictly a biography of Michael Collins focused on the years 1912 through 1922. In actuality, it covers a wide range of people and events and I cannot recommend it strictly as a Collins biography. However, as a history book that happens to have an emphasis on Collins, particularly in the latter part, I can recommend it. O'Connor has relied on materials from the library of General Richard Mulcahy (the IRA's chief of staff in Collins' time) and on interviews with Eamon de Valera, et al. For those reasons alone, I believe it is worth at least a cursory glance. Because of O'Connor's interest in and work for the Abbey Theatre, this book does emphasize literature and the arts in terms of how they fueled the independence movement. For someone interested in humanities as well as history, this would be one of O'Connor's advantages. This selection is divided only into numbered chapters rather than parts and that can be a bit irritating at times, especially because this is not a traditional biography. Chapter One actually begins by discussing Charles Stewart Parnell and the untimely end of his career. From there, the reader is taken quickly through the Irish political climate from the late 1800s to 1912. It is not until the last third of the book that the audience learns of specific ways Collins kept the republican struggle afloat in tough times. Therefore, this book's usefulness can only be determined by what you intend to use it for. If you are trying to accumulate materials for a general study of modern Irish history, this book is worth owning. If you are looking for a typical Collins biography, this wouldn't be the best starting point.

Michael Collins: A Life

James MacKay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Michael Collins: The Man Behind the Legend 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This biography was my introduction to the life and times of Michael Collins and it was a good one, though not as detailed and extensively annotated as Tim Pat Coogan's. The author is clearly an admirer of Collins but the portrayal appears to be objective and covers all the biographical bases in Collins' life--the Irish childhood and indoctrination with nationalist ideals from family and teachers; the years between 15-25 working in London; the participation in the Easter Rebellion and imprisonment in Wales; the return to Ireland and rise to leadership in the War of Independence; and the transformation to statesman in the Treaty negotiations. What Mackay particularly brings to the portrait of Collins is a warmth that allows the reader to see the real man behind the legend--the interactions with the men and women who shared his struggle or who opposed him, and the reaction of his countrymen to his leadership and to his untimely death during the bitter Civil War at the hands of former comrades who in many cases still revered him. Overall, an engrossing read.

Michael Collins: The Man Who Won the War

T. Ryle Dwyer

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Focused Look at Collins' Political Career 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Dwyer tackles his Collins biography by focusing on Michael's roles as a military man and a politico. As a matter of fact, Dwyer's opening chapter addresses the speech from which his subtitle was taken: Arthur Griffith's proclamation in the Irish Dáil that Collins was "the man who won the war." From there, Dwyer explores Collins' part in the Easter Rising, his productive time in jail, and his reintroduction to the republican movement in Dublin. The core of the book is dedicated to how Collins dismantled the system of British counter-intelligence in Ireland and the subsequent retalliation, Bloody Sunday. The last thirty pages examine Collins' duty in negotiating and then defending the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Collins' assassination and the aftermath of his death are not discussed. In the epilogue, Dwyer takes a moment to reassess Collins' awe-inspiring contributions to Irish independence and the sad conflict that developed between he and de Valera. Throughout the work, it is easy to see that Dwyer is obviously an admirer of Collins and pulls no punches as he evaluates de Valera, his followers, and the anti-Treatyites. He is not afraid to inject his own opinion into the text and such commentary is part of what causes Dwyer's biography to stand out from the rest of the pack. All things considered, this book is well worth your time, especially if you already have a basic knowledge about Collins' life and would like to know more. Because this book really contains no information on Collins' younger years, his early work in London, or the months prior to his death, I would not recommend it as a good Collins biography to read first. Make Dwyer's work second or third on your list.

Editorial Review:

The story of the charismatic rebel who undermined British morale and inspired Irish people.

Michael Collins: In His Own Words

Michael Collins

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Michael Collins - A Life in Pictures

Chrissy Osborne

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Editorial Review:

A unique collection of photographs that catalogue the life of this great Irishman. It includes many illustrations of the buildings and locations he would have known in Ireland and Britain but as they are today, together with rare photographs of his family and the people he knew. It also includes photographs of personal items such as his WatermanÆs fountain pen and his GAA medal, won for sprinting in 1914. This stunning compilation also covers his relationship with the love of his life Kitty Kiernan, and includes a close up of Kitty KiernanÆs watch, a pre-engagement present from Collins. A must have for all Michael Collins enthusiasts, this book is a pictorial history of one of the men who shaped Ireland, and the intriguing images prove that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Shooting of Michael Collins: Murder or Accident

John M. Feehan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Interesting look at Collins' death 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Every year on August 22, I remember the death of Irish politician Michael Collins, usually by watching Niel Jordan's 1996 movie. This last Friday, though, I opted for a change of pace and decided to attempt to completely read a book about Collins in two days. I chose The Shooting of Michael Collins: Murder or Accident? by John M. Feehan.

In the early months of our marriage, my wife and I used to sometimes spend Sunday nights down at a Barnes & Noble in Salt Lake City. Often, I would grab this book off the shelf and spend my time trying to understand Collins' death. As it was a confusing and hectic event, I became comfused myself but also very interested. I later bought the book.

I started to read it this last Friday morning and finished it late Saturday night. I have to say that, overall, it is a good book- generally well-written and full of interesting information. Its shortcomings are that Feehan often repeats bits of informtion and that some of his logic is not clear. But its strength is that Feehan had access to sources very close to the event. He personally interviewed several people who were there on that fateful night in 1922, or who were politically active during that period. Feehan also analyzes, line by line, several printed accounts by eyewitnesses such as those by Maj. Emmet Dalton (who was riding the backseat of the touring car with Collins just before his death, and Smith, the motorcycle escort that night. These testimonies form the basis of the narrative, especially in the final two chapters and Feehan shows himself to be a true historian by using original documents to follow where the evidence takes him. These documents and his analyzation alone are worth the purchase and reading of the book. It would be helpful if the reader has a basic understanding of the Irish Civil War and the personalities involved before reading. There is very little background information other than what Feehan explains during his short biography of Collins in the first chapter.

In the end, I find some of Feehan's conclusions to be sensible and others weak but his work is an interesting read nonetheless. I recommend The Shooting of Michael Collins.

For more on Collins' death, see Meda Ryan's excellent book The Day Michael Collins Was Shot.