Putting Wales First

The Political Thought of Plaid Cymru (Volume 1)

By (author) Richard Wyn Jones

Publication date:

Q4 2024

Length of book:

304 pages

Publisher

University of Wales Press

Dimensions:

216x138mm

ISBN-13: 9781837721832

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

In this authoritative book, Richard Wyn Jones traces the development of the political thought of Plaid Cymru from its birth in the winter months of 1924–5 to the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales in the summer of 1999. With a penetrating study of the political beliefs of Plaid Cymru’s most important leaders – Saunders Lewis, Gwynfor Evans, Dafydd Elis-Thomas and Dafydd Wigley – Wyn Jones charts the party’s emergence from the political fringe to the threshold of a devolved Wales. The development of the party’s constitutional and economic policies is given close attention, as well as its attitude towards the Welsh language; and from a vibrant discussion on the nature of nationalism and nationalist ideas, Plaid Cymru’s intellectual development takes its place within a broader historical and international context. The result reveals Plaid Cymru in a new and sometimes controversial light.

Preface to the English Translation Introduction PART ONE – NATIONALISM Chapter One. Nationalism, National Movements and Wales Understanding Nationalism Nationalism, the old and the new hen Nationalism, the self and violence National Movements The development of national movements The ideology of national movements Wales – in the shadow of the firstborn PART TWO – NATIONALISTS Chapter Two. ‘A passionate love of a stable civilisation’: The Saunders Lewis era Seizing the agenda Principles of Nationalism Historiography Nonconformism Laying the foundations Holding on One language or two? ‘Three acres and a Welsh-speaking cow’ Dominion status A flash in the pan Chapter Three. ‘A reconciliation with her fair past’: The Gwynfor Evans era I was rejected...? The inheritance: the core ideas of ‘Saunders’ a ‘Gwynfor’ Fundamental policies: the inheritance and its evolution The Welsh language Economic policy Constitutional objectives Aros Mae The End of Britishness Chapter Four: More than Dal ati? The era of the two Dafydds Turning Left: The End of the ‘Third Way’ Political philosophy Strategy Radical Wales A Parliament and Europe - again Wigley, Ceredigion and the paradox of the 1990s Index