An Anglican aristocracy
Subtitle: the moral economy of the landed estate in Carmarthenshire, 1832-1895
By: Matthew Cragoe.
Series: Oxford historical monographs
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
Subjects: Aristocracy (Social class) -- Wales -- Carmarthenshire -- History -- 19th century.; Administration of estates -- Wales -- Carmarthenshire -- History -- 19th century.; Gentry -- Wales -- Carmarthenshire -- History -- 19th century.; Carmarthenshire (Wales) -- Social conditions.; Carmarthenshire (Wales) -- History.
Description: This lively contribution to a major reassessment of nineteenth-century Wales challenges the widely-held Welsh historiography in which the contribution of the landed classes is marginalized in favour of the success of radical liberalism and nonconformity. This account of nineteenth-century Carmarthenshire emphasizes the social and political dominance of the Anglican and landowning nobility and gentry for much of the period.

Matthew Cragoe explores the nature and public roles of a governing elite, arguing that their influence was not simply a function of their members' wealth or their control of local government and the administration of the law, but had a vital ideological dimension in the aristocracy's paternalistic ethic, which found powerful and practical expression in the 'moral economy' of the landed estate.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-272) and index.