Welsh Journals

National unity might in this way be preserved and indeed strengthened. This is a striking conclusion to a study which makes such damaging criticism of the devolution acts. It suggests that constitutional reform will not for long be absent from the agenda of British politics. P. J. MADGWICK Aberystwyth THE VOICE OF THE PAST: ORAL HISTORY. By Paul Thompson. Oxford University Press, OPUS, 1978. Pp. xi, 257. £ 4.50 boards; £ 2.25 paper- back. Over the past two decades or so, the popularity of oral history has in- creased, largely through the work of pioneers such as George Ewart Evans. Dr. Thompson, in this book, shows us that oral history, however, is not a new development: since earliest times, historians have relied upon the personal interview either as a means of supplementing documentary evidence or as the sole source of information in certain subject areas. The invention of the tape recorder in the twentieth century has added a new dimension to the interviewing method, enabling the interviewer, for the first time, to record the exact words spoken for future use. The possibilities for historians which stem from this are enormous. The recent growth of oral history has been accompanied by develop- ments such as the establishment of the Oral History Society and of sound archives, including those of the Welsh Folk Museum's Department of Dialects and Oral Tradition and of the South Wales Miners' Library. Nevertheless, many 'traditional' academics continue to be suspicious or disdainful of the subject. Many professional historians are heirs to the theory, which developed in the nineteenth century, that documentary evidence should stand as the first authority. Consequently, interviewing is regarded as unscholarly and the reliability of oral evidence as question- able. Eminent historians such as A. J. P. Taylor can thus decry oral history, but, as the author here points out, others, such as Bede, Michelet, and Beatrice Webb, put the technique of interviewing to good use. In his first four chapters, Dr. Thompson attempts to 'sell' the subject of oral history. Tracing its development, evaluating recent work in the field, and assessing the value of the contributions which oral evidence can make to historical research, he argues convincingly, from the standpoint of the self-confessed socialist historian. He points out that oral history should not be a field of study in its own right, but that its value lies in being an adjunct to other historical fields, particularly economic and social history, where new sources of evidence can provide new vistas. In putting the case for oral history, however, he is perhaps, at times, a little too scathing in his attitude towards standard practices of documentary research. The book is also intended to give practical instruction on how oral evidence can be collected and used by the historian. Chapters on projects based on oral history, on interviewing, and on the storage and sifting of recorded material contain much valuable practical information, while the final chapter suggests some ways in which oral evidence may be used