Wales: A Question for History

Dai Smith, one of Wales’ leading historians, has completely revised his ground-breaking book Wales! Wales? and given it a new title which takes Welsh history to the millennium, addressing the issues of history, culture and society which face all countries. Perceptive and provocative essays on the Tonypandy riots, How Green Was My Valley and post-war Wales are complemented by new essays on the writing of history itself. The great renaissance in Welsh history prompts the question of what has been left unsaid, and why: and how did history come to draw so much on literature? The vexed issue of ’Heritage’ – such a growing concern in this information-hungry, leisure-orientated age – is also addressed. What dangers are involved in producing and marketing a heritage? How is a vital sense of self retained in the face of the commercialisation of culture? Is Heritage a recipe for amnesia rather than consciousness? The context is Welsh but the issue is world-wide.