Description
capitalist transformation, Anne Kelly Knowles traces a community of
Welsh immigrants to Jackson and Gallia counties in southern Ohio. After
reconstructing the gradual process of community-building, Knowles
focuses at the pivotal moment when the immigrants was involved with
the industrialization in their new region as workers and investors in
Welsh-owned charcoal iron companies. Setting the southern Ohio Welsh in
the context of Welsh immigration as a complete from 1795 to 1850, Knowles
explores how these strict Calvinists responded to the ethical dilemmas
posed by leaving their homeland and experiencing economic success in
the United States.
Knowles draws on all kinds of sources, including obituaries and
community histories, to reconstruct the non-public histories of over 1,700
immigrants. The resulting account will find appreciative readers not
only among historical geographers, but additionally among American economic
historians and historians of religion.