{"product_id":"how-black-was-my-valley-isbn-9781913462840","title":"How Black Was My Valley","description":"\u003cb\u003eProviding a searing insight and honest portrayal of post-industrial communities ravaged by decades of abandonment, \u003ci\u003eHow Black Was My Valley\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of lives defined by poverty, catastrophe and the fading dreams of better futures.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Written with authentic authority. It is evocative and excellent in every possible way.\"\u003c\/i\u003e – Neil Kinnock \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow Black Was My Valley\u003c\/i\u003e offers a raw, unforgettable look into the post-industrial landscape of South Wales, capturing the impact of poverty, disaster, and lost futures on communities that once fueled the British Empire. This powerful account intertwines personal stories with political insights, revealing the deep scars left by decades of economic abandonment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis compelling people's history explores the former mining communities of South Wales, shedding light on the hardship, isolation, and despair endured by those who once powered two world wars. Blending empathy and brutal honesty, the book travells through the dark shadows of the valley's past and present, confronting structural violence, lost opportunities, and the tragic rise in drug abuse and suicide.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRejecting narratives of resilience, \u003ci\u003eHow Black Was My Valley\u003c\/i\u003e is a journey into a community's unhealed wounds—a poignant testament to voices once silenced, now demanding to be heard.“Brad Evans’ captivating history of south Wales is written with authentic authority. It is evocative and excellent in every possible way. Evans provides a cliche-free, myth-lancing account of a ‘Coal Colony’ discarded by the powers that were after tearing use and relentless abuse.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Neil Kinnock\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"How Black Was My Valley is more than a memoir. Each carefully constructed sentence, every beautifully recorded or imagined moment, is placed alongside tragedy’s reality, ensuring that the ‘view from below’, as lived by the people who remain in the grip of economic marginalisation, is heard.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Phil Scraton, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eauthor of\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003ci\u003eHillsborough: The Truth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Anybody interested in the history of working class resistance, and people's daily struggles when confronting deep poverty blighting post-industrial communities should read this devastating study\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003ePaul Mason\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eauthor of\u003ci\u003e \u003ci\u003ePostCapitalism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Evan's beautifully crafted words and thoughts are now seared into me forever. Sit with each chapter for a while as its true devastation dawns on you. Thank God these stories are now being told. The boy of the valleys has come home and roared”.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003eLucy Easthope,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eauthor of\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhen the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This heartrending book summons powerful spirits from a great well of suffering. From within the darkest shadows of late Great Britain, both Evans’s prose and Meza’s haunting artwork allow us to glimpse a new vision of folk history from the deep: but it warns that humanity has taken the wrong path, and the light ahead may be too dim to guide us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003eVincent Brown\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eProfessor of History, Harvard University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Brad has gone down the mines and extracted a wealth of history that had been covered in soot and given serious literary attention to a vital yet overlooked aspect of working class and south Welsh life... a passionate, political, and personal retelling of the history of a place most people aim to avoid.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Rhys Thomas,\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e author of\u003ci\u003e The Future of Wales\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"A phenomenal, poignant memoir that pulsates with the militant passion and mordant wit of a Welsh Valleys landscape ravaged by white-on-white colonialism and globalisation. Oscillating between acute socio-economic-political observation and lush, almost mystical lyricism, it is a must read for anyone interested in British social history.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003eGareth Owen\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eHumanitarian Director, Save the Children\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"This is a crucial, driven, and necessary piece of work, fuelled by righteous rage and dismay at how certain social strata (living, loving, hoping human beings) are deemed dispensable once their utility has been wrung dry. If you finish this book without a sense of furious lament, then look to the carbonisation of your soul.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Niall Griffiths, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eauthor of \u003ci\u003eOf Talons and Teeth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Brad has gone down the mines and extracted a wealth of history that had been covered in soot and given serious literary attention given to a vital yet overlooked aspect of working class and south Welsh life... a passionate, political, and personal retelling of the history of a place most people aim to avoid.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Rhys Thomas, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eauthor of\u003ci\u003e The Future of Wales\u003c\/i\u003eBorn into conditions of poverty in the Rhondda valleys of South Wales, Brad Evans is a political philosopher, critical theorist and writer, whose work specialises on the problem of violence. He is author of over 20 books and edited volumes, including most recently \u003ci\u003eState of Disappearance \u003c\/i\u003e(with Chantal Meza, McGill-Queens university Press: 2023)\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e He previously led a dedicated columns\/series on violence in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Brad currently serves as Chair of Political Violence and Aesthetics at the University of Bath, United Kingdom, where is he founder and director of the Centre for the Study of Violence. web:www.brad-evans.co.uk","brand":"Repeater","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302368497893,"sku":"NP9781913462840","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781913462840.jpg?v=1767729296","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/how-black-was-my-valley-isbn-9781913462840","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}