Welsh Journals

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SHORT NOTICES G. H. Martin and Sylvia McIntyre, A Bibliography of British and Irish Municipal History. Volume I: General Works (Leicester University Press, 1972. Pp. lviii, 806. £ 12.50) is the first of a projected series of volumes listing printed and published works on the history of municipal government and municipal services which appeared before 1 January 1967. Subsequent volumes will cover particular towns, including London. Scholars will find the present bibliography, including as it does general bibliographies, texts and calendars, works on the urban community, on municipal administration, on Wales, Scotland and Ireland, quite invaluable. The lengthy introduction is a brilliant survey of recent scholarly research and writing on municipal development, from the appearance of Charles Gross's Bibliography in 1897 down to Redcliffe-Maud in 1969. The political, social and intellectual forces that have shaped the work of municipal historians from the Webbs onwards are incisively sketched. Wales is given a substantial thirty-five-page chapter on its own. While this forms a useful compendium for students of local history, there are some surprising gaps in the sub-sections on general bibliography, on parliamentary representation and on economic growth. Perhaps the revised Bibliography of the History of Wales (claimed here to be 'comprehensive') has been followed too closely. Even so, Welsh historians, medieval and modern, have been placed deeply in the authors' debt. Later volumes in the series will be eagerly awaited. Swansea and Brecon, 1923-1973 (Pp. 48. 20p) is a handsomely- illustrated handbook published by the diocese of Swansea and Brecon to commemorate the fiftieth jubilee. It includes an excellent survey by David and Margaret Walker of the history of the diocese since its foundation. The treatment of the problems encountered and overcome since 1945 is especially well done. Leslie Alcock, Arthur's Britain (Penguin Books, 1973. Pp. 415. 80p), is a paperback version of this outstanding scholarly account of Dark Age Britain, first published by Allen Lane in 1971. Firmly underpinned by extensive knowledge both of archaeological and written sources, this new edition includes thirty-two admirable plates and many more line illustra- tions. It will long serve as an authoritative survey of British history from the fourth to the early seventh centuries, and whets the appetite for Mr. Alcock's forthcoming contribution to the six-volume History of Wales series, to be edited by Glanmor Williams. Chester T. Tan, Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century Chester T. Tan, Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century (David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1972. Pp. 390. £ 4.20), is a lucid and intelligent survey of the development of Chinese political ideas from the