A History of Wales

by John Davies

Stretching from the Ice Ages to the present day, this masterful account traces the political, social and cultural history of the land that has come to be called Wales. Spanning prehistoric hill forts and Roman ruins to the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution and the series of strikes by Welsh miners in the late twentieth century, this is the definitive history of an enduring a unique and compelling exploration of the origins of the Welsh nation, its development and its role in the modern world. This new edition brings this remarkable history into the new era of the Welsh Assembly.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, British Literature, Historical, Academic, Politics

785 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

John Davies (1938-2015) was a Welsh historian and a television and radio broadcaster. After teaching Welsh history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, he retired to Cardiff and appeared frequently as a presenter and contributor to history programmes on television and radio.

In the mid-eighties, Davies was commissioned to write a concise history of Wales by Penguin Books to add to its Pelican series of the histories of nations. The decision by Penguin to commission the volume in Welsh was "unexpected and highly commendable," wrote Davies. "I seized the opportunity to write of Wales and the Welsh. When I had finished, I had a typescript which was almost three times larger than the original commission," wrote Davies. The original voluminous typescript was first published in hardback under the Allen Lane imprint. Davies took a sabbatical from his post at the University College of Wales and wrote most of the chapters while touring Europe. Hanes Cymru was translated into English and published in 1993, as there was "a demand among English-speakers to read what was already available to Welsh-speakers," wrote Davies. A revised edition was published (in both languages) in 2007.

In 2005, Davies received the Glyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the Machynlleth Festival. He won the 2010 Wales Book of the Year for Cymru: Y 100 lle i'w gweld cyn marw.

Reviews

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A HISTORY OF WALES, by John Davies, chronicles the turbulent history of Wales from ancient times until the late part of the 20th century.
Only those familiar with the layout of Wales can really follow the text, as there isn't a general map that shows major cities, rivers, etc. Therefore, it doesn't do a lot of good to tell us that something happened between this river and that river if we have no idea where those rivers are. Oddly, there are several maps of insignificant items such as "the distribution of hill-forts" and "Poor Law Unions, registration counties and registration districts".
The writing itself has to be some of the driest I've ever come across. Myriad statistics weigh down this 718-page history, and rarely do we get even a glimpse of the personalities behind the names of the participants in the creation of this country.
After slogging through this book, the only things I learned, and which was reiterated throughout, was that the Welsh are a fractious lot, are unable to determine among themselves what it means to be Welsh, the English are fond of creating committees to study them, and they mined a lot of coal. Surely there is more to Wales than this!
I'm a big fan of Wales, and hope to someday visit that great country, but I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone new to studying it, or contemplating going there. Stick with the pretty travel guides!
--Stephanie

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love reading history. I really wanted to love this book, since I have Welsh ancestry and wanted to understand my roots. I can put up with a lot of dry reading if I feel that I am learning something. With all of the great reviews, I thought for sure this would be a good read. However, this was among the driest reading I have ever struggled through. It was page after page of names, dates and places (with few maps to help locate these) with few enriching details. The author often said things like "This is the Llewellyn ap Owain of legend." This piqued my interest, but Davies always disappointed me. He gave not even a hint of what those legends might be, or any details of the life that would give me a sense of why he was remembered. It was just one lengthly recital of which leader fought which other leader over some piece of land, for seven hundred pages! Sometimes there was a bit of English, or French history thrown in, since the Welsh were deeply involved with their neighbors, but that was as exciting as it got. Even then it was just a tallying of how many Welsh fought in which battles. I hate to be harsh to any author, since I know how hard it must have been to pull together all of those facts, but good history is more than facts. This is not good history.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this took me over a month to get through I was kind of glad I persevered with it as it is well researched and very detailed and even I learned a thing or two about my native land that I didn't know. Having said that though it is a very dry read and it does focus on the political and religious side of things a bit too much for my liking, particularly given the diverse characters we have both past and present, not to mention the stories, folklore and tall tales that have been handed down through generations. This is a book I both enjoyed and hated as it captures the details but misses the point (the soul if you will) of Wales, if you're of an academic mind this is perfect for you but if you want to know about the land of song you're going to be disappointed.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the Bible re. the history of Wales, in my point of view. I have read it a couple of times and consult it every now and again.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very scholarly, very well researched, not the easiest prose to read.

[Max Gwynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly comprehensive yet just as dense a read sadly. A slog would be an understatement.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in Welsh in 1990, John Davies' "History of Wales" has aged very well. If Davies or a close colleague could write one or two new chapters to cover the last 30 years, this work could serve well to mid-century.
Davies writes a stirring tale of Wales during the pre-historic, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. His narrative bogs down in the Norman era although he does a wonderful job of explaining the differences between the March or Outer Wales which was ruled by Anglo-Norman lords and Inner Wales which had a Welsh nobility and where the Welsh language would remain stronger in later eras.
I found the chapters covering the 14th to 17th centuries to be the least interesting but in the 19th century Davies finds his form and maintains it through to the end of his chronicle in the late 20th century. The reason for this is likely that it is only in the 19th century that newspapers and books in Welsh began to appear which allowed Davies to tell the compelling story of the Welsh to preserve their culture and language. Davies also examines the argument that the Liberal party co-opted the Welsh by siding with them on the issue of the Disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales and in so doing prevented the creation of Welsh nation.
Finally, Davies very capably describes the enormous impact of Wales' rich coalfields which from the mid-19th to the mid 20th century created great prosperity for the country until oil became the dominant fuel. All in all, Davies' book provides a wonderful introduction to the history of Wales.

[David R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Davies takes the long view, and is the case with Penguin Classics, grinds through a workmanlike history of the troubled land of Wales. Despite a few flashes of clever, understated phrasing the book is rather dry and tedious especially in the sections from the 16th through 18th centuries. Davies spends too much time obsessing about the political choices of the Welsh (uniformly anti-England) and not as much diving how the Welsh managed to hold on to so much of their ethnic nationhood despite long odds. Despite my low marks this is a good introduction to an under-covered part of British history.

[Rod · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Davies is to be commended for the huge amount of time and research he must have invested to produce such a detailed chronology of the Welsh experience.

[Judith Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to agree with many of the reviews posted already for this book. I admire and respect all the painstaking, analytical and accurate work John Davies clearly devoted to documenting this history of Wales, but I also found it a very dry read, and had to slog through to the end by allocating a certain number of pages a day and making sure I kept my nose to the grindstone!

My son gave me this book for my birthday, so I shall certainly keep it, and however way you look at it, it is a valuable text book, but for a more entertaining, fun read on Wales, I would recommend ‘The Matter of Wales’ by Jan Morris.

Lastly, for me, for a historian (and incidentally one of Welsh parentage) who is also a beautiful writer, I can highly recommend Richard J Evans, whose books on the Third Reich are truly outstanding.

[RdWd · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Davies' A History of Wales is quite the comprehensive work on Welsh history! It's a dense volume spanning prehistory until the early 21st century and deserves serious applause.

It did, however, take me an astonishing amount of time to trudge through (15 months off and on). For me, this is because the focus of this "History Of" leans heavily towards the politico-religious history of Wales. Davies' discussion of the early Welsh identity up until the closure of its medieval period was a really engaging read. What follows 1536 C.E., with Wales' annexation into England until the advent of the Industrial revolution, became laborious; this is possibly in part due to Wales 'losing' a sense of Welsh identity - so it's not Davies' fault this section diverges in topical "Welshness". That said, his intense focus on the Non-Conformism during this period really drove me away for large periods of time (as the hilariously embarrassing graph of my reading progress shows!).



Only when we get to the Industrial Revolution and the 20th century does the read pick up again, largely because the Welsh identity is stoked and rekindled. Even still, many cultural accomplishments of Wales are still only brushed over such as the literary, musical, sporting and artistic merits of the post-Industrial Wales.

3.5/5

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave it all I had, but it finally crushed my sole at about page 450. I almost made it through, but I could just not read another page. The author's prose, his approach of the subject matter, and the lack of depth of information regarding much of the material was just disappointing. I felt myself not being able to follow his train of thought at times.
The author spent much of the time just covering the different religious movements through out the countryside of the time, while never painting a well fleshed-out picture of the country and its inhabitants. I ended up knowing more than I would have ever liked to about "nonconformist" itinerant preachers and I still couldn't even tell you about any of the major crops or the influences of those on the agricultural/rural economy. Lame.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, this was a tough read. Literally took me over two years to slog my way through it, but I finally made it. I do agree and wish the author paid more attention to the personalities, which we all know *make* the very history we enjoy reading. Still, as a non-Welsh, but someone who's very interested in Wales, this provided great insight. Need an update through 2010 as my edition (is there an updated version?) only went through the late 80s.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book off of amazon thinking it would be great for my thesis. While it is full of great information, John Davies decided against footnotes, making this book unusable for my thesis. It was very interesting, however, and did give me questions that have been helpful in propelling me in my research. It is a little dry, but worth the read for anyone looking for a good general book on Welsh history.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

well done political history of wales. some detours into culture and linguistics. comprehensive look at the entire history of the region. this book won't give you the details, and it does presume a passing familiarity with welsh-ness, but it's a great broad overview.

[Marc Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the books is overall quite dry, it does pick up after 1536 or so; the sections on Wales 1980-2007 is quiet well done and should be appreciated. A tough read, but if you want to know Welsh history, it's a must read.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This single-volume history of Wales runs just shy of 1000 pages, but still manages to move bewilderingly fast - inevitable given its scope. It was a good overview to prepare for deeper reading on the early stuff, and probably covers all I am interested in since 1850.

[Heather scarlett victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

would love to be able to read the whole thing in welsh. cymru am byth.

[Gaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely brilliant, a book full of information

[Mabon Finch · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a fantastic book, if what you’re wanting is a generic overview of Welsh history. However, if you want any in-depth information on specific events, then this is not the book for you.

[Ben Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough and fascinating overview of the history of Wales. I believe many of the harsh reviews here are unfair. The aim of this book is to cover the history of a nation (or geographic area) from pre-history to the mid-2000s. It does so comprehensively, tracing almost every facet of society - economical, political, cultural, and religious - over hundreds of years.

It seems many reviewers did not know what they were picking up. They should look in the biography section of their bookshop, not history. There were occasions the writing was statistic-laden - especially as it covered the modern era - but I could easily skim these paragraphs without losing my place.

[Penni Mayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

very political, I didn't find it gripping.

[Elena Sotelo-McCrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever you want the real story of the English this is it. We have all grown up with the history we believed to be true, kings, queens, etc. But, who really was responsible and who are the people that have kept their own language, are so closely tied to the heritage of the past, that they are almost forgotten. All I know is that this book has given the clearest road from the past to the present. If you love history, want to know where you fit in, take time to read this most important work.

[Tom Jenckes · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very thorough. At the same time it's got a lot of details I wasn't interested in. I did find one ancestor in the book. It did help me understand better how Wales dealt with England historically.

[Reddogs11 · Rating 3 out of 5]

i haven't finished reading this book yet, but i wanted to mention what is in it .

i brought the book on-line without reading many reviews(it was recommended as a top book on a history site i like). i brought this book wanting to learn about early welsh history from about 48-1500, but this book is pretty light on the early history, page 1 to 386 is dedicated to fist settlement of wales to 1850, while page 387 to 711 is about wales from 1850 to present, which i wasn't very interested in.

so if you want a good summary on welsh history with a focus on the modern times its a good book but if your more interested in earlier welsh history your better off finding dedicated books to the period.

[Elizabeth F]

This book takes you from early archeologic history of the British Isles,into written history. It is PACKED (and I do mean packed)with information, such that I have to have a laptop at my side, with a Welsh-English dictionary open, as well as Wikipedia, for a reminder/explanation of whatever event is being discussed. While mostly a straightforward history, Mr Davies does allow himself the occasional twentieth or twenty-first century comment, providing a rare chuckle in the midst of this dense story.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally finished! A history book of epic undertaking, so it was a slog at times. Unfortunately for me much of history is political and that I have a very hard time maintaining interest. But for sheer historical quantity I feel it deserves 5 stars. Plus, it is Wales! And I am more than normally biased.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because the topic is so broad (the entire of history of Wales from the beginning to now), the sections don't always have the depth I would like. It's already very dense, so making it any longer would probably require it to be divided into volumes, which may not have been a bad thing. Overall, though, this is a good comprehensive history for putting more specific events in perspective.

[Loring Wirbel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Welsh friend suggested I read this massive and comprehensive work, and I made sure to pick up the second edition which carrles the story into the 21st century. I gave the book five stars, due to Davies' intricate interweaving of multiple topics, and his careful research, which liberally cites the work of others instead of claiming things for himself. But the five stars comes with a caveat: This is not the kind of action-packed page-turner you might find in histories of Ireland or Scotland. Following successive intrusions of the Roman Empire and the Saxons, Wales experienced only two eras of expansion and consolidation of power: in the ninth century under Rhodri the Great, and in the 14th century under Llywelyn Bren. King Edward II decisively defeated Llywelyn in 1318. In the succeeding 700 years, Wales became a virtual vassal state (and often a craven one) for England.

So how does Davies handle this? There are no physical battles or subterfuge in the English parliament between 1322 and 2022. He handles it by showing how different groups within Wales worked on differentiation within the U.K. through religion, political activism, language, arts, and even sport. One critical factor that continues to define Wales to the present day is that a minority of its people speak a type of Brythonic language, older than Gaelic and similar Celtic tongues, that has been considered a defining factor of Welshness, though in an on-and-off fashion. Davies is honest enough to say that there have been times when some in Wales treat English-speaking as a matter of pride, and only in the last century has there been a concerted effort to keep the Welsh language alive.

He also shows how geography helps to define how Welsh people make spiritual and political choices. As soon as alternative Protestant religions arose to challenge Henry VIII's Church of England, many Welsh people defined themselves as various creeds of "Nonconformist" religions. Sometimes the alternative to Anglicanism was itself pretty conservative, as with various Calvinist and Puritan sects, but many in Wales saw a revolt against the Anglican Church as a form of rebellion against England.

The sparsely-populated northwest of Wales is a conservative rural district where the British parties that became the Tories found early adherents. But in the southeastern coal fields north of Cardiff, radical mineworkers arose that often engaged in more militant labor actions than the most radical British coal-worker sites. As a result, this region was key in forming the Labour Party, and in opposing the brutal anti-miner tactics of Maggie Thatcher in the 1980s. But the coal-miner radicals had to accept two realities: From 1920 on, the coalfields, followed by the quarries and steel-making plants, employed less and less workers every year. And the miners also had a tough time extending their radicalism to other parts of the country. Wales is by nature a rural and sparsely populated nation, and it is deeply conservative in the west and north. Add to that mix the fact that the northeast of the nation tends to follow the trends across the border in Liverpool and Merseyside, and you have a complex mess of beliefs and intentions.

In the second edition of this book, Davies compares the devolution referenda of 1979 and 1997. In the former vote, Welsh citizens rejected the notion of devolved power and the creation of a national assembly, and it was only the successful creation of assemblies in Scotland and Ireland that convinced Wales in the 1990s that devolution was to their advantage. Indeed, Davies says that as recently as the 1970s, many Welsh citizens weren't certain they wanted to be an independent nation -- a troubling uncertaintly that has plagued the nation since the 1300s. Davies rightfully criticizes Labour Party leaders from Aneurin Bevan to Neil Kinnock, for dismissing Welsh struggles for independence, because they didn't fit the socialist ideal of "one big union and one big working class." Follow the rivers of nationalist belief, Davies says, and reject class analysis when it should be rejected, which is most of the time.

Since the creation of an assembly in the early 200os, Welsh pride has reinforced the popularity of differentiation from England. Welsh theater groups and classical ensembles, Welsh pop artists like John Cale and Cate Le Bon, and Welsh sports teams in football and cricket, have finally unified Welsh pride in a manner that took 700 years to get right.

In fact, Davies ends the second edition of his book with a brief description of the important political role played by football teams. Those politicians disinterested in sports tend to dismiss the importance of sports events in driving national identity, but they can be critical. At the end of the recent World Cup, a friend posted a picture of Buenos Aires with millions of people on the street. Another friend who was a political junkie was apparently completely unaware that Argentina won the World Cup, and said, "What was this? A major political event or a coup?' When told it was a celebration, she dismissed the impact of sports. Davies insists we must pay attention to everything: sports, language, religion, pop culture and pop music, and labor struggles, in determining how a people can slowly evolve to a more nationalist self-image.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been quite a tough read for me, probably because I am new to the subject, but it has been interesting, and I have learned a lot. Since this is one of my places of origin, it has been worth it to me to work through.