Merthyr, The Crucible of Modern Wales

by Joe England

Overview

For most of the nineteenth century Merthyr Tydfil was the largest urban settlement Wales had ever seen. Merthyr, The Crucible of Modern Wales looks at Merthyr’s rise to prominence and how it foretold the economic and social transformation of Welsh history. It was Merthyr, from the armed rising of 1831 to the electoral radicalism of 1868 and 1900, which led the way towards democracy and civic betterment in the teeth of material degradation and high-handed repression. This volume brings the whole epic history of Merthyr, from 1760 to 1912, into the focus of a fresh and utterly convincing perspective. For Modern Wales, see Merthyr, in a book which is a triumph of readability and intellectual passion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913640057
Publisher:	Parthian Books
Publication date:	05/01/2021
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Joe England was educated at Cyfarthfa Grammar School, Merthyr Tydfil and at the University of Nottingham where he studied Economic and Social History. He has been editor of a weekly newspaper, a full-time lecturer for the Workers’ Educational Association, Deputy Director of the Department of Extra-Mural Studies in the University of Hong Kong, Research Fellow in the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick University, and Principal and chief executive of Coleg Harlech, Wales’ residential college for adults.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

1 A Place in the Hills 19

2 The Masters 42

The Workers

3 Protest and Control 64

4 Riots 1800 and 1816 89

5 1831: Armed Insurrection 101

6 Breaking the Unions 114

7 In a Righteous Cause 122

8 An Oasis of Calm 145

9 The New Paternalism 164

10 Dowlais: Company Town 185

11 The Old Order Changeth 207

12 Trade Unions: A False Dawn 222

The Middle Class

13 Unitarians, Freemasons, Radicals 240

14 A Great and Urgent Necessity 258

15 Clearing up the Mess 269

16 Seeking Civic Power 283

17 The Guardians and the Poor 304

Politics

18 Chapels and Politics 324

19 Labour's New Voice 343

20 Keir Hardie and the Dowlais Rising 362

21 Days of Hope 382

Postscript 403

Acknowledgements 407

Index 409