aberfan
Government and Disaster
(Revised & updated second
edition)
Iain McLean & Martin Johnes
The
full truth about Aberfan
The Guardian
The
research is outstanding...the investigation is substantial,
balanced and authoritative...this is certainly the definitive
book on the subject...Meticulous
John
R. Davis, Kingston University
. 'Contemporary
British History' 2002
Excellent...thorough
and sympathetic...well worth the money spent on it
Headway 2000 (Aberfan's Community Newspaper)
Intelligent
and moving
Planet
‘Definitive...authoritative...anyone who wants to understand the
process of government and its obsession with secrecy should read
this book.’
Ron Davies, Secretary of State for Wales 1997-1998
The tragic events at
Aberfan on the morning of October 21 1966, when 116 children and
28 adults died in a sea of slurry following the collapse of a
coal tip from the mountain above the mining village, will
forever be etched in the memories of the people of the
industrial valleys of south Wales.
Aberfan - Government &
Disaster is widely recognised as the definitive study of the
disaster and, following meticulous research of previously
unavailable public records - kept confidential by the UK
Government’s 30-year rule - the authors explain how and why the
disaster happened and why nobody was held responsible.
Iain McLean and Martin
Johnes reveal how the National Coal Board, civil servants, and
ministers in the Labour Government of Harold Wilson including
the Secretary of State for Wales, George Thomas, who should have
protected the public interest, and specifically the interests of
the people of Aberfan, failed to do so. The authors also
consider what has been learned or ignored from Aberfan such as
the understanding of psychological trauma and
the law concerning ‘corporate manslaughter’.
Aberfan - Government &
Disaster is the revised and updated second edition
of Iain McLean and Martin Johnes’ acclaimed study published in
2000, which now solely focuses on Aberfan.
Iain McLean is Professor of Politics at the University of
Oxford and Official Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College,
Oxford.
Martin Johnes is a Reader in History at the University of Swansea.
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