Revolutionary, unionist and socialist James Connolly is best known for his part in organizing the bloody Easter Rising of 1916, a flash point in Irish history. Yet the Rising was just one defining event in a career devoted to peaceful activism for Irish independence, social justice for the working class, and the rights of women. This biography traces the political life of an unassuming advocate for nonviolent social change at the ballot box, who later helped lead a violent insurrection to establish an Irish Republic and was executed by a British firing squad.