Author Description

The election of a Welsh Assembly gives democracy, politics and civic society in Wales the opportunity of a new impetus, which can be best understood - and best guided - by enquiring of what has passed in the last century of Welsh history. Leading historian Dai Smith has fully revised his book Wales! Wales? to take Welsh history to the millennium and produce 'a history fit for use.' The great renaissance in Welsh history prompts the question of what has been left unsaid, and of the relationship between political, cultural and social histories. The vexed issue of 'Heritage' - a growing concern in these information-hungry, leisure-oriented times - is also addressed. What dangers are involved 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?