Between 1642 and 1780, powerful social forces transformed Wales from an impoverished, downtrodden, and sleepy nation to one on the threshold of unprecedented social, economic, and political change. Drawing on an extensive range of original and published material, Jenkins reveals how demographic growth, agrarian advancements, the development of heavy industries and trade, and improved communications created the foundation for modern Wales. Among the colorful and influential personalities who appear in this book are Vavasor Powell, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Edward Lhuyd, and Sir Humphrey...

Based on historical research and debates about Wales and Welshness, this volume offers an authoritative and accessible account of the period from Neanderthal times to the opening of the Senedd, the home of the National Assembly for Wales, in 2006. Within a remarkably brief and stimulating compass, Geraint H. Jenkins explores the emergence of Wales as a nation, its changing identities and values, and the transformations its people experienced and survived throughout the centuries. In the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, the Welsh never reconciled themselves to political, social and...

This book brings together the foremost experts in the history of the Welsh language to trace its trajectory through the twentieth century. Contributors discuss not only the numerical and territorial decline of Welsh but also its struggle for official recognition, and the different roles it has played (and continues to play) in social, regional, and class domains. Welsh speakers have long been concerned with the fate of the language, and this volume puts that problem, and its integral relationship with education, work, and everyday life in Wales, into a broad, productive context. This new...