The book

Wales since 1939 was published by Manchester University Press on 1 March 2012.

The book explores the history of Wales from the outbreak of the Second World War until around 2009. It is a comprehensive survey but there is a particular emphasis on social history and questions of national identity.

The paperback version can be bought from Amazon here for £15.64. The ISBN is 978-0719086670.

The period since 1939 saw more rapid and significant change than any other time in Welsh history. Wales developed a more assertive identity of its own and some of the apparatus of a nation state. Yet its economy floundered between boom and bust, its traditional communities were transformed and the Welsh language and other aspects of its distinctiveness were undermined by a globalizing world. Wales was also deeply divided by class, language, ethnicity, gender, religion and region. Its people grew wealthier, healthier and more educated but they were not always happier. This ground-breaking book examines the story of Wales since 1939, giving voice to ordinary people and the variety of experiences within the nation. It incorporates not just the traditional topics of Welsh history such as nationalism, language and mining, but also those things which mattered in people’s everyday lives. This is thus a history not just of a nation, but of its residents’ hopes and fears, their struggles and pleasures and their views of where they lived and the wider world.

• See the book jacket
• Read about each chapter
• Read my reflections about the experience of writing the book (and Welsh history in general)
• Reflections on the book and “impact”

Wales since 1939 is published with the financial aid of the Welsh Books Council, a body funded by the Welsh Government to promote publishing in and about Wales.