Welsh Journals

It is the political ballads which stand out most, from the Civil War through John Wilkes, Peterloo and the Chartists to the age of CND. It is here, perhaps, that the book best realizes its subtitle, 'Songs and social comment'. The songs discussed in the chapters devoted to 'Pastime' and 'The Sexes' reflect social mores rather than social comment, though they are no less interesting for that. In his Introduction the author seeks to defend the oral tradition against the suspicion of historians. His book would be enhanced by a fuller discussion of those problems which make historians wary of ballad evidence: the difficulties of accurate dating, the tendency to use stylized language which cannot always be taken as an accurate depiction of events, and the uneven survival of these ephemera, which makes reliance on them hazardous. The book has a good bibliography, discography and index, and the author is meticulous in his references, which testify to his extensive researches in libraries and record offices. His habit of citing printed songs from sound recordings is, however, a little unnerving: would it not be better to cite 'Keep the home fires burning' as the published work of Ivor Novello (p. 281), rather than simply refer to a record of popular songs of the First World War, even if the intention is to direct readers to oral sources? It is unfortunate too that the songs and ballads from Wales to which the author refers are perforce in English: those cited on p. 266 in the context of revival of nationalism are in reality far less significant than, for instance, the Welsh-language ballads of Dafydd Iwan These, however, are minor reservations. Despite the author's modest claim that his work is intended for the non-specialist, his tentative hope that the historian and the student of popular culture will find much of interest is amply fulfilled in this well- founded and illuminating study of a difficult, diffuse subject. RHIDIAN GRIFFITHS National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth JOHN BULL'S ISLAND: IMMIGRATION AND BRITISH SOCIETY, 1871-1971. By Colin Holmes. Macmillan, 1988. Pp. x, 448. £ 33.00; paperback £ 10.95. Readers of the WELSH HISTORY REVIEW will be familiar with Dr. Holmes's approach. His article on the anti-Jewish riots of 1911 in Tredegar (ante, Vol. 11 No. 2 December 1982) shows in miniature his virtues-a concern to get the best possible evidence and then to order it within a systematic structure. What is astonishing about this book is the scale on which he succeeds in extending this. One hundred and four pages of fine print are necessary to contain his references which range widely over British evidence (including Scotland and Wales) covering a century or more. There will be few Welsh historians who can match his knowledge of the relevant Welsh material. Indeed, he is so comprehensive that it is a slight disappointment that he does not find a sentence or two for all those Italian cafe-owners in south Wales; but if any substantial reference existed, Dr. Holmes would have found it. The book is