This is the fifth volume in a ground-breaking series of studies on the social history of the Welsh language.  It contains twenty-two chapters, all written by acknowledged experts in the field, dealing with the status of the Welsh language in a wide range of social domains, including agriculture and industry, education, religion, politics, law and culture. Although bureaucrats, Celtophobes and some of the upwardly mobile Welsh-speaking bourgeoisie were reluctant to promote the interests of the native tongue, there clearly existed an enormous potential for Welsh to become, both numerically and socially, a powerful influence in several contested domains.