Welsh Journals

Most of the articles which comprise this excellent volume had been previously published, but now underpinned with a most thought-provoking initial chapter, together they seem to coalesce into a pertinent questioning of the nature and extent of Wales's industrial past. Although the exercise is primarily aimed at the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is quickly appreciated that LJ's perspective is open-ended in considering the period of most intense industrialization as the high-watermark of Wales's brand of economic growth. This might very well be seen as a criticism, but the nature of the process did not differ greatly from time to time and thus legitimate literary licence may be accorded. On their first readings, many of the articles will probably have been seen as independently descriptive reflections, but together in this collection they comprise a critical insight into Wales's economic past. Although the reviewer may be tempted to consider the individual chapters grouped thematically, the author's wide- ranging approach suggests that this volume should not be considered in anything but a comprehensive manner. Yes, we all know that Wales industrialized. But, as John Williams effectively shows, neither the concept nor the process of industrialization was at all succinct or obvious. Although the reader might already be familiar with many of the chapters then, together and in the context of the question 'Was Wales Industrialized?, they take on a more meaningful and pertinent flavour. COLIN BABER Cardiff Cwm RHONDDA. Golygwyd gan Hywel Teifi Edwards. Gwasg Gomer, Llandysul, 1995. Pp. 346. £ 13.95. The inescapable and paradoxical conclusion any reader must reach having perused this most erudite and enjoyable of volumes is that the world- renowned Rhondda valleys were both created and destroyed by the same forces, namely those of the Industrial Revolution and their consequences. Topographically the Rhondda changed from a pastoral and agricultural region of monoglot Welsh-speakers, into an extended row of terraced housing punctuated by the coalmining buildings, the strain of such horrendous development and voluminous immigration fatally undermining (no pun intended) the indigenous Welsh culture. Such developments make the Rhondda a geologist's paradise and a demographer's purgatory. At various times during the last century and a half, it has also been a musician's heaven, and both heaven and hell to writer and preacher.