"William Murphy's monograph is an exciting and necessary scholarly addition. Meticulously researched, broadly considered, and nuanced in interpretation, Murphy's book convincingly argues for the need to move beyond the public arena and instead to examine the period through the usually hidden 'prism' of the prison." --Journal of British Studies "[Murphy] present[s an] innovative, rigorously researched study of important aspects of this still contentious period. A strength of Murphy's new book is, indeed, its engagement with comparative literature on, for example, Indian and South African political imprisonment. Murphy offers the first comprehensive history of a decade during which political prisoners.effectively turned the apparatus of state control into a site of active revolution." --Social History "His book is encyclopedic in its coverage of the experience of Irish political prisoners from 1912 to 1921 and will be a valuable reference for any student or scholar seeking to better understand that experience in the context of the Irish Revolution."-Journal of Modern History "Drawing on a wide and disparate range of sources (including government documents, newspapers, personal letters and first-hand accounts gleaned from diaries and memoirs), Murphy skilfully sets out how imprisonment was both a common experience for those involved in political agitation in Ireland at the time and how it was, simultaneously, one of the key strategies of the state in dealing with resistance to its authority.

Throughout Murphy writes with great clarity and demonstrates extraordinary rigour in his use of primary sources." - Richard Mc Mahon, Comparative Legal study.