Ralph A. Griffiths

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

The Exercise of Royal Authority, 1422–1461

The Reign of King Henry VI

John Gillingham

A Very Short Introduction

Medieval Britain

A study of the thirty-five Carnegie libraries built in towns and industrial communities in Wales before the First World War. The library system is in a transformative phase that attracts much attention; these Carnegie buildings have never been fully recorded, and some are in critical condition. This book illustrates their social, cultural and architectural significance, and how they reflect Carnegie’s extraordinary philanthropic vision. It reviews the free and public library system in Wales and Great Britain from the first Public Libraries Act of 1850, followed by an account of Carnegie’s career as ‘the richest man in the world’ and the importance he attached to promoting libraries for all, regardless of age and gender. The haphazard development of public libraries in the nineteenth century is the context in which Carnegie’s links with Wales are noted, along with the circles in which he moved in Britain. The largest section discusses the libraries’ locations, sites and patrons, and the buildings themselves. It concludes with Carnegie’s legacy in Wales, not least the role of his UK Trust in the county library movement after 1911.

Andrew Carnegie and the Libraries of Wales

Free and Public

Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449–1525) was a Welsh soldier and landholder who attained prominence during the Wars of the Roses and was instrumental in the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Here Ralph A. Griffiths recalls Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his family as a way to explore the relationship between Wales and the English crown during this time of political turmoil and civil war.

Ralph A. Griffiths

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