Little Known Histories

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One of the bundle of presents that Jane bought me for Christmas was the above book. A slim volume, but in itself a much more substantial story of Welsh industrial history. I've read a good chunk of it today, and intend to finish up with the next reading. The industrial history of North Wales is obviously of great interest to me, given our family origins. The appalling treatment meted out to working men and their families by the landowners and their accomplices in pursuit of profit in the coalfields and slate quarries informs my politics and attitudes to authority to this day. I'll let you know more about the events recorded in this little book as soon as I finish it. It makes a good companion to "What I Saw At Bethesda" [blog posts passim], and the parallels between the two are there to be drawn, as they are a microcosm of the greater struggle of the working classes against the combined forces of privilege and capital.

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