Welsh Journals

For the scholar interested only in the Welsh dimension there is not a great deal that departs from received wisdom. In part this is due to the relatively narrow range of primary sources accessed by the author, and by his reliance on publications of Welsh labour historians. In spite of the book's opening pot-shots at the official historians of the SWMF, Llafur-ites in particular will find their assessments echoed, rather than challenged. Nevertheless Chapters 4 and 6 provide sound, lucid summaries of the industrial relations and political histories of this era, peppered with insight- ful observations. In the first Fagge makes valuable use of the records of the coalowners' association to provide the occasional view from the employers' side. In the second, rather than being seduced by the glamour of extra- parliamentary political strategies, he sees political trends moving towards a 'Labour south Wales' (p. 254): '[i]n an increasingly national political framework, the web of identities-Welsh, English, British, radical, socialist, working-class, miner-which were the substance of these communities became re-defined, and re-shuffled around the appeal of the pragmatic Labour Party.' Too few Welsh historians have been able to admit as much. There are only a few errors, mostly typographical: 'Sehnghenydd' (p. 79), 'Mynydd Newydd' (p. 80), 'eisteddfod' (p. 83) and 'Aneurin' (p. 278) indicate the limitations of spell-checkers. Dr Fagge's account of the Ruskin College strike (p. 86) is mistaken on both its cause and timing, and his assessment that Thomas Halliday's candidature in Merthyr Boroughs at the 1874 General Election was aimed at supplanting Richard Fothergill rather than Henry Richard (p. 234) is open to serious doubt. In a book of such high ambition and breadth of coverage, such blemishes are virtually invisible and Dr Fagge's work will reward serious attention from scholars and students alike. CHRIS WILLIAMS Cardiff THE EDWARDIAN Crisis: BRITAIN, 1910-1914. By David Powell. Macmillan, 1996. Pp. 112. £ 37.50 hardback; C 10.99 paperback. It is interesting that after sixty years historians continue to find the idea of the 'Edwardian Crisis' useful in that it offers a convenient label, although their work has often failed to support the thesis in detail. The crisis is in fact a classic example of the historical interpretation that precedes the avail- ability of the documentary evidence; and its survival is a tribute to the power of contemporary propaganda over scholarship. In this new treatment of the subject Dr Powell identifies five main themes of domestic politics,