Studies in Welsh History – serie

Between the years 1860 and 1920 around 80,000 Welsh immigrants settled in the United States. This volume focses on Scranton, the epicentre of Welsh America, and examines the wider issues of how these immigrants regarded their nationality, their mother country, their relationship with other cultures and how they became absorbed into the society of their new home.

This text provides a study of the impact of Renaissance and Reformation scholarship on Welsh society and its leading members. It aims to show how broadly disseminated this scholarship was in a part of the Kingdom of England which was often regarded as remote and backward. In the absence of its own civic and court traditions, Wales depended heavily on English educational institutions. The entry into the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and into the Inns of Court in London of over 2500 Welsh students between 1540 and 1640 represented a significant commitment to the acquisition of learning. It also made the Welsh the most distinct and also most accepted of the non-English elements at these places. However, they preserved their separate identity to a marked degree, aided by special patterns of educational endowments. Higher education offered the Welsh student the opportunity to share in a wide experience of Western European intellectual scholarship. It also offered career openings for Welshmen which are examined in some detail. The differences to emerge between north and south Wales are a particular feature of this study, especially in the context of the production of an educated clergy to serve the emergent Reformation Church in Wales. Equally, the manner in which higher learning gave opportunities for careers in England, particularly in the law, are also examined in detail. Finally, the study recounts the impact of higher learning on patterns of public administration in Wales and on the country's cultural life. The relationship of this learning to the intellectual activities of the gentry, clergy and lawyers is described, especially the growth of bookish interests and the assimilation of these groups into a milieu of "high culture".

This volume charts the withdrawal of a traditional ruling elite and the arrival of a sense of self-awareness among the tenants, labourers and craftsmen of 18th-century Wales. The crisis of community is examined through the experience of the people of Montgomeryshire, a county that lies at the heart of Wales. The traditional, hierarchical community and the agrarian-craft economy which supported it may have appeared stable enough around 1700. However, the sharp increase in the population and a greater dependency on the returns of day labour pauperized a growing sector of Welsh society. For the tenant farmers, the symptoms of a slumping and scraping land hunger were well in evidence by the 1770s and intensified as the returns from farming failed to keep pace with demands for rents, rates and tithes. An increasing detachment and aggressively exploitative attitude on the part of the landowning elite sharpened the popular sense of crisis. Industry, particularly the woollen industry, provided a material escape, while Nonconformist and Methodist meetings provided spiritual comfort, and for many, the rioting, political agitation and emigration that increasingly characterized Wales from the 1790s were also legitimate responses to the new order in Welsh society.

A thorough examination of the role of Tudor government and its personnel in an essentially Welsh context, and an analysis of the impact of the Acts of Union on the mechanics of local government in Caernarfonshire. This is important because it adds another dimension to historians' knowledge and understanding of the manner in which local gentry, in collaboration with regional institutions, sought to maintain peace and security in the generations after the Acts of Union. The theme is particularly interesting in view of current researches into the character and principal features of community life in early modern England and Wales and because the Carnarfonshire Quarter Sessions records are the only sources of their kind that have survived for the Welsh counties in that period. They reflect the activities of the justices of the peace and other county officers in one county which formed part of the Old Principality of North Wales. The gentry were required to maintain law and order as servants of the central Tudor administration and were supervised, on the varying degrees of efficiency, by the Council in the Marshes based on Ludlow. It was a period which saw significant social, economic, religious, and cultural changes, some of them attributed to the Tudor Settlement of Wales (1536-43) when the office of magistrate was itnroduced into Wales. The volume is based on an examination of this country's social structure, with particular reference to leading members of the emerging county families who were responsible for administering law and order, the changing personnel of the magistracy, the framework and conduct of administration in Quarter Sessions (the pivot of county government), legal and administration duties. In the last chapter there is a discussion of concepts of the "ordered society" as interpreted in contemporary sources - including Welsh strict-metre verse - which emphasized the "role" of the "Governor" in its early modern context in Welsh society.

More than 700,000 British servicemen died in the First World War and 35,000 of these are listed in the Welsh Book of Remembrance. The loss of life on such an immense scale meant that bereavement became a shared experience throughout Britain, as the British public attempted to come to terms with such widespread grief. The war memorials found in almost every town and village bear witness to the need felt in the post-war years to commemorate the dead. These memorials have already been studied as repositories of political ideas and as works of art and public sculpture, but little work has been done on the social history of commemoration. This book provides the first comprehensive examination of the social and political significance of remembrance in Wales. It places the commemoration process within the wider context of Welsh history in the decade following the Great War, and studies the impact of that war upon local communities and the ways in which those communities chose to remember the fallen.

The 1870 Education Act provided that every child in England and Wales was to be provided with an opportunity to receive elementary education. This book considers the way in which Welsh society viewed the 1870 Education Act and how local political and religious leaders oversaw its implementation.

In this work, Paul O'Leary examines the causes of emigration and seeks to understand the experience of Irish immigrants in Wales. Initially, there was little evidence of Celtic solidarity and the Irish often met with violent hostility from the Welsh. Nevertheless, by the late 19th century the tortuous process of integration was well under way and appeared to be relatively trouble free in comparison with the Irish experience in many other parts of Britain. The author considers key aspects of immigrant life in depth: pre-famine immigration; the role of the Irish in the labour force; criminality and drink; the establishment of community institutions ranging from Catholic churches and schools to pubs and bookshops, from friendly societies to political organizations; the mobilization of support for Irish nationalist organizations; and Irish participation in the labour movement. In each case the author links the distinctive experiences of the Irish to developments in Welsh society.

Early industrial Merthyr is synonymous with the darker side of the British urban experience. This work considers the efforts of dedicated civic "boosters" to civilize the town's public spaces and its inhabitants and shows how this vision of Merthyr depended on the taming of popular culture.

More than 700,000 British servicemen died in the First World War and 35,000 of these are listed in the Welsh Book of Remembrance. The loss of life on such an immense scale meant that bereavement became a shared experience throughout Britain, as the British public attempted to come to terms with such widespread grief. The war memorials found in almost every town and village bear witness to the need felt in the post-war years to commemorate the dead. These memorials have already been studied as repositories of political ideas and as works of art and public sculpture, but little work has been done on the social history of commemoration. This book provides the first comprehensive examination of the social and political significance of remembrance in Wales. It places the commemoration process within the wider context of Welsh history in the decade following the Great War, and studies the impact of that war upon local communities and the ways in which those communities chose to remember the fallen.

The inter-relationship of coal, community and politics is central to the history of modern Wales and, for many, the South Wales valleys symbolize the culture of coalfield communities. This text offers a different insight into mining history. It examines the history of the North Wales coalfield.

"A Forgotten Army" reconstructs the experiences of Welsh women who undertook essential munitions work during World War II. The events of wartime are placed against the background of the wider Welsh social, economic and cultural context.

"That Other Game" surveys soccer's early history in south Wales. Through an exploration of the spectrum of the game, from international matches and professional clubs to schoolboy games, this book illustrates how soccer was shaped by wider social, cultural and economic forces.

In this work, Paul O'Leary examines the causes of emigration and seeks to understand the experience of Irish immigrants in Wales. Initially, there was little evidence of Celtic solidarity and the Irish often met with violent hostility from the Welsh. Nevertheless, by the late 19th century the tortuous process of integration was well under way and appeared to be relatively trouble free in comparison with the Irish experience in many other parts of Britain. The author considers key aspects of immigrant life in depth: pre-famine immigration; the role of the Irish in the labour force; criminality and drink; the establishment of community institutions ranging from Catholic churches and schools to pubs and bookshops, from friendly societies to political organizations; the mobilization of support for Irish nationalist organizations; and Irish participation in the labour movement. In each case the author links the distinctive experiences of the Irish to developments in Welsh society.

This text offers an examination of Welsh military organization, strategy, tactics and conduct in war which goes beyond the military sphere and touches on all aspects of Welsh society in this period.

This study looks at the means by which Methodists in Wales communicated with their fellow Evangelicals, how the Welsh revival influenced the wider movement, and the ways in which the international movement affected the development of Welsh Methodism.

A volume of essays offering a refreshing insight into the reaction of the Welsh people to war, focusing on a series of conflicts dating from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries; including tables of information, maps and black-and-white illustrations.

1937-1979 was a distinctive period in the political history of Wales. It began with a demand by MPs from all parties that a secretary of state be appointed, and ended in 1979 with the referendum on a Welsh assembly, the 'end of an era' in the words of Lord Cledwyn. This book shows how devolution was an issue in Welsh politics during the period under review, how British governments responded to devolutionists' demands, and how much was eventually conceded. Early on, two important developments were the setting up in 1949 of the Council for Wales and Monmouthshire and the appointment in 1951 of a minister for Welsh Affairs. Significantly the Council recommended in 1957 that a secretary of state be appointed and Labour acted on that proposal in 1964. The book examines the changing pattern of Labour thinking with regard to Wales and also the various nationalist challenges that threatened its dominance in the 1960s and 1970s. The referendum on the Labour government's devolution proposals is seen as bringing to an end a period in which both Labour and Conservative governments had been forced into a consideration of Welsh matters, and had been made to think about the precise way in which Wales should be administered within the British system.

Based on a detailed study of the court records of the county of Denbighshire in north-east Wales, focusing on the period from 1660 to 1730, this book shows from the records of crime and the courts both order and disorder, law-keepers and law-breakers, the respectable and the unruly. It also reveals the divisions and inequalities.

The economic depression of the interwar period marks a fundamental turning-point in Welsh history, and in particular the history of south Wales, when decades of breakneck industrialisation, urbanisation and in-migration came to an end and were followed by a period scarred by unemployment, poverty and emigration. This study examines the human costs of unemployment and poverty through a study of the health of the population of south Wales. It contributes to the 'healthy or hungry thirties' debate about the effects of unemployment and poverty on health in interwar Britain through an examination of south Wales, the region of Britain that experienced the highest levels of levels of unemployment and the greatest degrees of poverty. It examines patterns of health and mortality in different types of community in south Wales and undertakes a systematic and rigorous examination of the statistical data. Chapters on the working-class domestic economy, housing, environment, diet and medical services ascertain the consequences of unemployment and poverty on the everyday lives of working-class families.

An organized women's suffrage movement operated continuously in Britain for more than sixty years, from the mid 1860s until the achievement of equal voting rights with men in 1928. In the decade prior to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, both militant suffragettes and law-abiding suffragists ensured that the issue came to the forefront of British politics. This book is the first large-scale, comprehensive investigation into the movement in Wales, which participated in the agitation throughout the whole of the period. Grounded in primary research of extensive archival material, this study looks at the impact that all the various campaigning organizations had in Wales, it highlights the role of the many hugely committed but unsung individuals on whom local impact was dependent and looks at the stances adopted by various politicians and at parliamentary developments. The book covers the dramatic and sensational actions carried out by the 'suffragettes' in Wales, some of which led to several of the most widely-publicized clashes between demonstrators and authority outside London, and the more mundane work undertaken by the vast majority of campaigners across the decades. Due attention is paid to the opponents of women's suffrage, to their arguments and to their organized resistance. Finally, the study recognizes the survival of the campaign in the face of the wartime difficulties and then details the much-neglected last decade of the campaign, between the granting of partial enfranchisement in 1918 and the triumph of equal franchise in 1928.

This book uses, principally but not only, a case study of the Denbighshire town of Ruthin to discuss both the significance of Englishness versus Welshness and of gender distinctions in the network of small Anglo-Welsh urban centres which emerged in north Wales following the English conquest of 1282. It carefully constructs an image of the way in which townspeople's everyday lives were influenced by their ethnic background, gender, wealth and social status. In this manner it explores and explains the motivations of English and welsh townspeople to work together in the mutual pursuit of prosperity and social stability.

This book explores the ways in which the distinctive Welsh county of Cardigan and its inhabitants (known as Cardis) have been represented during the late modern era. The image of both Cardiganshire and the Cardi changed considerably during this period, and this representational history examines the reasons why these shifts took place. In doing so, the study uncovers an array of opinions about the county. Each of these viewpoints are analysed, placed in context and set against one another. The picture which emerges is of a place and a people onto which commentators projected their hopes and fears.

Was migration from Victorian Cardiganshire simply a flight from rural poverty? This book relates the rate and timing of the outward movements from the county to the prevailing social and economic conditions. It provides insights into the factors involved in migration, and using computer-assisted analysis of census enumerators' books examines key dimensions of the communities at the major migrant destinations.

Many books have focused on the rise of, and success of, the Labour party in Wales, but this one focuses on its decline in an understudied part of Wales.

As late as 1980, a quarter of the population of Wales lived within the boundaries of what had once been the lordships of the Bute estate. Powerful landowners for centuries, the Stuarts of Bute were key drivers of the many social, political, and economic changes that transformed south Wales between the eighteenth and twentieth century. This volume explores the Butes and their influence, setting them in context of a long, interwoven history of landed proprietorship, economic development, and the rise of the industrial middle class throughout Britain.

The booming coal industry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the main reason behind the creation of modern south Wales and its miners were central to shaping the economics, politics and society of south Wales during the twentieth century. This book explores the history of these miners between 1964 and 1985, covering the concerted run-down of the coal industry under the Wilson government, the growth of miners' resistance, and the eventual defeat of the epic strike of 1984-5. Their interactions with the wider trade union movement and society during these years meant the miners were amongst the most important strategically-located sections of the British workforce during this time. The South Wales Miners is the first full-length academic study of the miners and their union in the later twentieth century, in a tumultuous period of crisis and struggle.