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of course a phrase used by Liberals and it is in the press as an aspect of English liberalism that Dr. Lee is primarily interested. His book immediately establishes itself as the primary point of departure for sub- sequent study. Dr. Lee covers a wide period with an admirable mixture of confident and mature generalization and telling detail. Dr. Lee quite rightly spends a good deal of his space on exposition, drawing together information about the working of the post-1860 press from a large number of scattered sources on the London and provincial press, supported by thirty-four useful tables. Though he under-emphasises the importance of the evening papers, he gives a good account of the salient features of the English morning dailies between 1855 and the 1880s. There is some mention of the Scottish press, but little on Wales or Ireland. But Dr. Lee's book is not merely exposition: the exposition is intended to amplify an argument which, crudely stated, is (a) that the post-1860 press should be seen as one aspect of a particular political culture, (b) that it flourished while that culture was predominantly liberal, (c) that its decline coincided with its 'depoliticization'. On the whole Dr. Lee sustains this argument persuasively; the Liberal press (and that of the Tories, which accepted the liberal rules of the game, at any rate until the 1890s) coincided with the period between 1867 and 1918 of the extended but still limited franchise, when politicians behaved as if most of the electorate was capable of comprehending at least some of the details of their arguments. Indeed, the book would have been more accurately entitled 'The decline of the quality press', for that was what, by the 1890s, the 'popular press' of the 1860s had become. Dr. Lee could have gone into rather more detail about the means by which the liberal press projected its view of rational politics to its readership. Though he has comments on the reporting of parliament, and political speech-making, he has not supported this with any 'content analysis', and comparison, except in general terms, with the content of the new journalism of the 1880s is therefore not possible. Exactly in what ways the new press was 'depoliticized' (except in the intentions of its ownership) is therefore not wholly clear. Some use of the advanced and extremely detailed techniques now being used in the study of the French press might have been useful in this context. This reviewer is sympathetic to Dr. Lee's view that the rise and decline of liberalism was closely related to changes in the franchise and in the organisation of society. Those who take a less determinist view may wish for a clearer exposition of the details of 'depoliticization', but they will none the less regard Dr. Lee's book as a challenging contribution to political studies. H. C. G. MATTHEW Christ Church, Oxford COAL METROPOLIS: CARDIFF, 1870-1914. By M. J. Daunton. Leicester University Press, 1977. Pp. 260. £ 12.00. It is a curious aspect of the historiography of modern Wales that little attention has been given to the emergence of Cardiff as a major urban