Bernard W. Deacon is a multidisciplinary academic focusing on 18th and 19th-century Cornwall, its language, and identity. His work delves into population changes, governance in peripheral regions, and the presentation of Cornish identity. A fluent speaker of the Cornish language, Deacon is actively involved in its revitalization and in organizations dedicated to its support. His academic career includes research and teaching at various universities, centering on Cornwall's history and society.
The book examines the prioritization of second home owners and in-migrants over local residents in Cornwall, highlighting the economic failures and environmental repercussions of such policies. It also delves into the cultural ramifications, detailing how these strategies marginalize the Cornish community and jeopardize the preservation of their unique identity and heritage.
This book traces the creative tensions produced by Cornwall's unique history, from an independent British kingdom through a culturally distinct medieval province and a prominent industrial region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to its present location as a post-industrial paradox: nation, region and county all wrapped in one.
This volume addresses the issue of Cornish Nationalism and the history of the political movement that has set the political agenda in Cornwall since the 1950s.