The period since 1939 has seen more rapid and significant change than any other time in Welsh history. Wales has developed a more assertive identity of its own and some of the apparatus of a nation state. Yet its economy has floundered between boom and bust, its traditional communities have been transformed, and the Welsh language and other aspects of its distinctiveness have been undermined by a globalizing world. Wales has also been deeply divided by class, language, ethnicity, gender, religion, and region. Its people have grown wealthier, healthier, and more educated but they have not always been happier. This ground-breaking book examines the story of Wales since 1939, giving voice to ordinary people and the variety of experiences within the nation. This is a history of not just a nation, but of its residents' hopes and fears, their struggles and pleasures, and their views of where they live and the wider world.