The language of the blue books - Gwyneth Tyson Roberts

In 1847 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the state of education in Wales, which became known as The Treachery of the Blue Books, was a major turning point in Welsh history. While praising some schools and teachers, it presented an overall picture of the Welsh working class as dirty, drunken, deceitful, superstitious and sexually promiscuous, and castigated Welsh Nonconformity and the Welsh language. This image remained strong for the remainder of the 19th century. This volume traces the background to the Report, by outlining the ideas and attitudes current at the time among the English social class from which the Commissioners were drawn and then considers in detail the language used in the Report. It argues that the Report's claims to objective description and judgement are undermined by its use of language, which reveals the social, political, national, gender and religious preconceptions of the men who wrote it.