Welsh Journals

THE WELSH QUESTION: NATIONALISM IN WELSH POLITICS, 1945-70. By Alan Butt Philip. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1975. Pp. xiv, 367. £ 6.00. The writing of contemporary history is a difficult but rewarding art. The difficulties lie in the abundance and diversity of the evidence and the lack of historical perspective. Dr. Butt Philip surmounts these difficulties, indeed exploits them, to yield a closely textured account of nationalism in Welsh politics, 1945-70. The perspectives derive from the author's feel for political activity, a sharp but sympathetic insight, and from the political awareness of the late 1960s. The author has supplemented the published sources with an extensive study of newspapers, private collections of papers and the records of political and cultural bodies. In addition, he conducted over one hundred and fifty interviews with persons directly or indirectly concerned with Welsh politics, and has used the available surveys of Welsh opinion. From these diverse sources the author skilfully constructs a coherent, well-substantiated, lively narrative and analysis; and only the references indicate the rawness of the original material (and hence the extent of the historian's art). Technically this is an accomplished piece of contemporary history. The book is concerned with nationalism in its many forms, not just with Plaid Cymru. In effect, five central chapters are devoted to Plaid Cymru, three of these to a narrative of political history 1945-70, two to 'sociological aspects' (analyses of attitudes, voters, leaders, candidates, and a study of policies and organization). There are three useful introductory chapters on the nationalist legacy, socio-economic change and the Welsh culture. The book ends with two chapters on the place of nationalism in some Welsh institutions and pressure groups, and within the other political parties. Dr. Butt Philip is particularly good in conveying a sense of the individuality of the people involved in the politics. This is crucial for the understanding of a political phenomenon like Welsh nationalism, so little determined by institutions and procedures; and it raises questions about elites and leadership in Welsh society, which perhaps merit further and more direct analysis. His account of the power structure of Plaid Cymru is fascinating, not least because the structure has been flexible if not totally missing. The fluidity of Plaid Cymru's policies is also well documented. These aspects of Plaid Cymru as a political party were the original prime objectives of the research. Fortunately, Dr. Butt Philip soon discovered that he was investigating a social and cultural movement, a political church and a state of mind, as well as a political party only loosely comparable with the major British parties. The similarities were greater at the end of the period than at the beginning. The nature and pace of the change emerges from this study, and credit for the transition is attributed not to the young men, but to the party's Grand Old Man, Gwynfor Evans. Welsh nationalism had roots or tributaries in nonconformity, in the Irish example, in the romantic nationalism of nineteenth-century Europe.