Welsh Journals

Welsh. Recognising the seriousness of the situation, the Welsh Office initiated a project at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, whose brief was to prepare resources and materials for pupils in the first three years of the comprehensive school. The project, which was launched in September 1978, has been sponsored by the W.J.E.C., and this has ensured a steady stream of history textbooks into the secondary schools of Wales. In the early days, such was the scarcity of Welsh language material that many teachers were prompted to use some of these units with '0' level and C.S.E. groups. Since 1983, however, the Welsh Office Resources and Materials Project has expanded its frontiers so as to prepare material for those pupils studying in the fourth and fifth years. One unit in this latter series has already appeared, and more will soon follow. The six volumes under review are the most recent additions to the original project. These are designed primarily for the 11-14 age group, and they have increased the number of volumes published to twenty-seven. Hitler a 'r Natsiaid makes splendid use of visual and documentary material in a unit which seeks to show how Hitler accumulated power within Germany, and why the Germans eventually supported him in his declarations of war. The unit deals with the background to Hitler's rise: the weaknesses of the Versailles settlement, the inflationary pressures, and the social and political changes in Germany. The quotations are aptly chosen and the material is well presented. In particular, the exercises in this unit are structured in such a way as to appeal to different ability groups. Arloeswyr y Rheilffyrdd is by John W. Roberts, who died, sadly, over a year ago. He had been appointed as a Projects History Officer at Aberystwyth in 1979 and, in the short space of six years, he had produced many invaluable units in this scheme. His work will obviously stand as a lasting contribution to Welsh-medium teaching. In this particular unit on the Railway Pioneers, he invited his readers to journey along that exciting route from Penydarren in 1804, through the Taff Vale in 1841, and eventually to the far corners of the principality. The work is well-balanced, and the Welsh developments are placed firmly within the British context. There are useful sections on George and Robert Stephenson, and on Isambard Kingdom Brunei. The final section brings the pupil to the closing decades of the twentieth century with a clear snapshot of the railway network in the 1980s. Y Llychlynwyr, prepared by John Alan Roberts, looks at evidence that the historian would consider in his quest for the Vikings. The unit is sensibly organised, with nicely illustrated sections on the origins of the Vikings, their maritime adventures, homes, arts and crafts, and Viking religion and beliefs. A particularly useful aspect of this collection is the reference to archaeological discoveries. Robert M. Morris has produced the remaining three units: on Charles I, the Civil War and Cromwell. The first looks at Charles I's reign from 1625 to the outbreak of civil war in 1642. The material is marshalled in such a way as to enable the pupil to consider the opinions of some contemporary historians as well as to measure the views of those who are observers of, and participants in, early-Stuart England and Wales. The chapters are clearly organised, with some splendid little snippets on the