Welsh Journals

In the nineteenth century it produced a kind of 'proletarian' clergy whose attitudes and interests-witness the career of John Griffith, rector of Merthyr-were often diametrically opposed to those of their more fortunate brethren in the Vale. More needs to be known about these clergy as well. Studies in the social history of communities in the Glamorgan side of the diocese lead one to suspect that they had more in common with the nonconformist ministers of their parishes than Canon Davies would allow. At any rate, in times of strikes and disturbances, whatever the causes, they were usually to be found side by side pleading the cause of 'moderation' and appealing to the idea of a community of interests between the two sides. At such times, both dissenter and Anglican must have appeared to be fairly indistinguishable and their differences to be pretty irrelevant. Questions such as these arise on every other page, and this, surely, is an indication of the quality of the book. More than ever it is now clear that massive research into the quality of life of these communities is required before satisfactory answers can be forthcoming. Canon Davies has made a brilliant start and a substantial contribution that will never be ignored by future students, and for this he deserves our sincerest admiration and thanks. IEUAN GWYNEDD JONES Swansea ENGLISH HISTORY, 1914-1945. By A. J. P. Taylor. Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. xxviii + 709. 45s. A. J. P. Taylor, the greatest living English historian, has written a masterpiece. It is a masterpiece in the classical, not the romantic idiom. There are no villains in English History, 1914-1945 and few heroes (though Churchill is described as 'the saviour of his country'); Mr. Taylor is a leveller by instinct. There are few geniuses and fewer fools than one might have expected. Nor is history for Mr. Taylor the story of great struggles between persons or institutions or ideas; here we find no trace of Carlyle or Toynbee. Instead, he provides us with a brisk narrative in which men read books, go to the cinema, make love and war, take decisions, and deceive each other and themselves-all to no very obvious purpose beyond the need to make do as best they can. Mr. Taylor is classical in his economy of means. Details are used sparingly and always to effect. The prose is taut and incisive. Of Northcliffe he says: 'He aspired to power instead of influence, and as a result forfeited both.' He writes of the bafflement contemporaries felt in the face of Britain's rapidly changing economy: 'Here, as elsewhere, men lamented the new world which became their salvation.'