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Distributed for University of Wales Press

The Conservative Party in Wales, 1945–1997

The first book-length study of Wales’s second political party in the decades after World War II. 

Wales is often considered one of the most anti-Conservative parts of Great Britain, and the party is seen as unable to connect with voters. This book offers a more nuanced perspective, interrogating why the Conservatives failed to find purchase in certain parts of the country and situating the party’s approach to the nation into the broader study of the Conservative Party. Sam Blaxland discusses how the party communicated its policies, chose its candidates, and deliberately crafted specific policies “for the nation,” including introducing the first Minister for Welsh Affairs to make Welsh a compulsory subject in schools. Adopting a holistic approach to the party, the book scrutinizes activists and prominent Tories at the grassroots and considers what they reveal about understudied aspects of Welsh history, particularly the lives of the Anglicized and socially conservative middle class.

320 pages | 12 halftones | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2024

Studies in Welsh History

History: British and Irish History

Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion


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Reviews

"Drawing on Conservative Party archives, with many details that have not previously been published, Blaxland’s book provides an insightful and nuanced view of the party in Wales during a period of great social change."

Nation.Cymru

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements
List of figures
List of tables
Abbreviations
Note on terms and place names
Note on interviews and oral contributions
Introduction
Chapter One: Defeat and the Response to Labour, 1945–1951
Chapter Two: Affluence and a Changing Wales, 1951–1964
Chapter Three: Modernity and Localism: 1964–1975
Chapter Four: Thatcherism and its Legacy, 1975–1997
Conclusion
Bibliography

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