This, the first volume in the History of Wales, provides a detailed history of Wales in the period in which it was created out of the remnants of Roman Britain. It thus begins in the fourth century, with accelerating attacks from external forces, and ends shortly before the Norman Conquest of England. The narrative history is interwoven with chapters on the principal sources, the social history of Wales, the Church, the early history of the Welsh language, and its early literature, both in Welsh and in Latin. In the fourth century contemporaries knew of the Britons but not of Wales in the modern sense. Charles-Edwards, therefore, includes the history of the other Britons when it helps to illuminate the history of what we now know as Wales. Although an early form of the name Wales existed, it was a word in the Germanic languages, including English, and meant inhabitants of the former Roman Empire; it therefore covered the Gallo-Romans of what we know as France as well as the Britons.

This classic study examines the period when Wales struggled to retain its independence and identity in the face of Anglo-Norman conquest and subsequent English rule. Professor Davies explores the nature of power and conflict within native Welsh society as well as the transformation of Wales under the English crown. An account of the last major revolt under Owain Glyn Dwr forms the culmination of this excellent work.

In Rebirth of a Nation the acclaimed historian Kenneth O. Morgan provides a wide-ranging and comprehensive analysis of modern Welsh history. Taking as its starting-point 1880, the book covers all aspects of the nations history from political, social, economic and religious development to literary, intellectual, and sporting achievement. His absorbing account spans the years of Liberal ascendancy and of national renaissance from 1880 to 1914; the period of economic depression, the rise of the Labour Party, and tension between Welsh and Anglo-Welsh from 1914 to 1945; culminating in a new sense of national identity following the Second World War.