Industrial South Wales 1750 1914

South Wales was one of the main centres of the Industrial Revolution in Britain but the story of the rapid growth of an industrial society there has not yet been fully told, since much of the work done has consisted of articles rather than books. This volume brings together a selection of important contributions hitherto only accessible in a large number of scattered periodicals. These articles have been selected to present a considered sequence and are preceded by an introduction which puts the story of the industrialization of Wales into perspective. They deal firstly with the problems of population and migration then with the basic industries of iron, coal, tinplate and copper. These are followed by essays on banking, and the volume concludes with contributions on trade unionism and building. This is by no means merely the story of regional development since the book has a wider appeal; a number of the articles are concerned with the links with America and with the place of Wales in the Atlantic economy. Amongst the authors are the late Sir Lewis Namier and some of the leading writers on the history of modern Wales including Brinley Thomas and A. H. Dodd.

This study is the first thorough analysis of the extent of the opposition to the Great War in Wales, and is the most extensive study of the anti-war movement in any part of Britain. It is, therefore, a significant contribution to our understanding of people’s responses to the conflict, and the difficulty of mobilising the population for total war. The anti-war movement in Wales and beyond developed quickly from the initial shock of the declaration of war, to the civil disobedience of anti-war activists and the industrial discontent excited by the Russian Revolution and experienced in areas such as the south Wales coalfield in 1917. The differing responses to the war within Wales are explored in this book, which charts how the pacifist tradition of nineteenth-century Welsh Nonconformity was quickly overturned. The two main elements of the anti-war movement are analysed in depth: the pacifist religious opposition, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Nonconformist dissidents who were particularly influential in north and west Wales; and the political opposition concentrated in the Independent Labour Party and among the radical left within the South Wales Miners’ Federation.

Provides an account of the economic development of the British coal industry from 1800 to the First World War.

This volume tells a story of Welsh industrial history different from the one traditionally dominated by the coal and iron communities of Victorian and Edwardian Wales. Extending the chronological scope from the early eighteenth- to the late twentieth-century, and encompassing a wider range of industries, the contributors combine studies of the internal organisation of workplace and production with outward-facing perspectives of Welsh industry in the context of the global economy. The volume offers important new insights into the companies, the employers, the markets and the money behind some of the key sectors of the Welsh economy – from coal to copper, and from steel to manufacturing – and challenges us to reconsider what we think of as constituting ‘industry’ in Wales.

First Published in 1983. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1983. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.