Book excerpt: For most of the nineteenth century Merthyr Tydfil was the largest urban settlement Wales had ever seen. Merthyr, The Crucible of Modern Wales, looks at Merthyr's rise to prominence and how it foretold the economic and social transformation of Welsh history. It was Merthyr, from the armed rising of 1831 to the electoral radicalism of 1868 and 1900, which led the way towards democracy and civic betterment in the teeth of material degradation and high-handed repression. This volume brings the whole epic history of Merthyr, from 1760 to 1912, into the focus of a fresh and utterly convincing perspective. For Modern Wales, see Merthyr, in a book which is a triumph of readability and intellectual passion.