Hywel Mortymer's story begins in 1800 when he is sixteen and a dramatic change in fortune leads him, innocent and inexperienced, to a brutal and dangerous life working in the coal mines. In the mines children can be horribly maimed in devastating gas explosions, or grow deformed with the burden of their labours and babies are born underground. Wales is in turmoil. A tragic divide between rich and poor, the workers powerless, penniless, starving and diseased sparks growing unrest as the newly founded Unions move inexorably towards the Chartist Rebellion. This Proud and Savage Land is a brilliantly detailed chronicle of early nineteenth- century Wales and a prelude to the bestselling Rape of the Fair Country.

Hywel Mortymer's story begins in 1800 when he is sixteen and a dramatic change in fortune leads him, innocent and inexperienced, to a brutal and dangerous life working in the coal mines. In the mines children can be horribly maimed in devastating gas explosions, or grow deformed with the burden of their labours and babies are born underground. Wales is in turmoil. A tragic divide between rich and poor, the workers powerless, penniless, starving and diseased sparks growing unrest as the newly founded Unions move inexorably towards the Chartist Rebellion. This Proud and Savage Land is a brilliantly detailed chronicle of early nineteenth- century Wales and a prelude to the bestselling Rape of the Fair Country.

The first volume in Alexander Cordell's classic trilogy of mid-nineteenth century Wales. Set in the grim valleys of the Welsh iron country during the turbulent times of the Industrial Revolution, this unforgettable novel begins the saga of the Mortymer family - a family of hard men and beautiful women, all forced into a bitter struggle with their harsh environment, as they slave and starve for the cruel English ironmasters. But adversity could never still the free spirit of Wales, or quiet its soaring voice, and the Mortymers struggle on even as the iron foundries ravish their homeland and cripple their people. Rape of the Fair Country launched the bestselling career of Alexander Cordell in 1959 and went on to sell millions of copies in seventeen languages throughout the world.

The incredible story of the primitive railways, known as tramroads, built in order to link the iconic ironworks around Blaenavon - now a UNESCO world heritage site.

As editor Kenneth E. Hendrickson, III, notes in his introduction: “Since the end of the nineteenth-century, industrialization has become a global phenomenon. After the relative completion of the advanced industrial economies of the West after 1945, patterns of rapid economic change invaded societies beyond western Europe, North America, the Commonwealth, and Japan.” In The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History contributors survey the Industrial Revolution as a world historical phenomenon rather than through the traditional lens of a development largely restricted to Western society. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History is a three-volume work of over 1,000 entries on the rise and spread of the Industrial Revolution across the world. Entries comprise accessible but scholarly explorations of topics from the “aerospace industry” to “zaibatsu.” Contributor articles not only address topics of technology and technical innovation but emphasize the individual human and social experience of industrialization. Entries include generous selections of biographical figures and human communities, with articles on entrepreneurs, working men and women, families, and organizations. They also cover legal developments, disasters, and the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution. Each entry also includes cross-references and a brief list of suggested readings to alert readers to more detailed information. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History includes over 300 illustrations, as well as artfully selected, extended quotations from key primary sources, from Thomas Malthus’ “Essay on the Principal of Population” to Arthur Young’s look at Birmingham, England in 1791. This work is the perfect reference work for anyone conducting research in the areas of technology, business, economics, and history on a world historical scale.

In this vibrantly told, meticulously researched book, Miles Harvey reveals one of the most fascinating and overlooked lives in American history. Like The Island of Lost Maps, his bestselling book about a legendary map thief, Painter in a Savage Land is a compelling search into the mysteries of the past. This is the thrilling story of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, the first European artist to journey to what is now the continental United States with the express purpose of recording its wonders in pencil and paint. Le Moyne’s images, which survive today in a series of spectacular engravings, provide a rare glimpse of Native American life at the pivotal time of first contact with the Europeans–most of whom arrived with the preconceived notion that the New World was an almost mythical place in which anything was possible.