| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Prior to industrialisation, there was a nebulous and fragmented Welsh national character or mass collective identity. Industrialisation engendered significant sociocultural upheaval and change, and for this 'new' society to function effectively a cohesive Welsh identity had to emerge. Because the impetus behind industrialisation had occurred primarily in a British context, any newly formed Welsh identity would ultimately have to be reconciled to the nation's industrial import within a 'United Kingdom'. Mass cultural commonalities and the role played by leisure in this procedure is a core element in the establishment of industrial modernist nation-states. Therefore, this article argues that public-house culture played a central role in the construction of a new industrial Welsh national ideology that was ultimately allied to, and a constituent of, a British imperial agenda designed to exploit both the natural resources and workforce of the area to its maximum extent.
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