Welsh Journals

is redundant, being synonymous with Britishness, but this distinction should not be lost, not least because the non-English parts of the British Isles often have a very clear sense of identity-and it is not of being English. Yet does not Britain and Britishness offer some sense of corporate identity? Crick suggests that the collective experience and history of these islands cannot be ignored and the pervasive nature of Britishness has ensured that discrete alternative nationalisms, within the Union, are less self sufficient than might normally be assumed. Harvey Cox, writing on Ulster from a personal perspective, reminds us that identity is, of course, a deeply subjective issue, a concept and attribute that cannot be easily apportioned, yet one into which analysts happily persist in allocating to people. The very complexity of the issue of national identity, and of its powerful, rhetorical political potential, is nowhere better illustrated than in Northern Ireland. Cox makes a powerful case for emphasising Ulster as the collective identity that links both Protestant and Catholic irrespective of their Unionist or Republican sympathies. Although the mainland has largely been spared the routine consequences of such heightened national consciousness, Ulster should not always be considered a place apart. As befits a Coleg Harlech publication, Wales is somewhat over-represented in this collection. This is unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable. Chapters by Emyr Wyn Williams, John Osmond and the editor himself provide the core of the collection against which the papers on England and Ulster can be judged. The breadth of the material on Wales demonstrates the far reaching implications of the concept of national identity, yet illustrate the limited extent to which such discussions, though excellent in themselves, ever fully address the question of England and Ireland. The editor is fully aware of these shortcomings and one accepts the limitations of a publication of this kind. However, some explicit discussion of Scotland would have undoubtedly enhanced the day school, as well as this volume, rather than remaining implicit throughout the collection. Such criticism is somewhat churlish; within the confines inherent in such a publication, this is a very worthwhile collection. The topics are of great interest and relevance and yet have too often been neglected. Further academic analysis of the nature and character of contemporary Britain, and its consitituent national identities, can only benefit the disciplines of history, sociology and political science. This collection clearly illustrates the potential of this field of research. DENIS BALSOM Aberystwyth PEOPLE AND SOCIETY IN SCOTLAND: Vol. II, 1830-1914. Edited by W. Hamish Fraser and R. J. Morris. John Donald, Edinburgh, 1990. Pp. xvi, 363. £ 12.50 paperback. This is the second of three volumes sponsored by the Economic and Social History Society of Scotland on the social history of Scotland since 1760. This volume covers