Wales and Welsh Historiography

Abstract

This paper is based on the research done for my PhD up to this point. Being barely a year into my canditure, this research has not yet progressed into detailed analysis of the topic, but regardless of this, several interesting features have emerged. The research question my thesis is based on is as follows: What images of Wales and Welshness have historians constructed within Welsh history published between 1972 and 2003, why were these images chosen, and how do they fit into the broader debate over Welshness and Welsh identity? The question is based on three broad areas: British historiography, theories of historiography and theories of nations and nationalism. As I will discuss later, little research has been done into Welsh historiography, and therefore, these areas provide the conceptual framework for my research. There have been three major developments in the field of British historiography since the start of the 1990s as a result of an intellectual debate over the solidity of the concept of Britain, both as a nation-state and as the basis for national identity. The first of these developments is that of new British history, which approaches the history of the four constituent members of Britain from a non-Anglocentric view point. The second has been the emergence of neo-nationalist histories, which have been complemented by the third and final development in the form of the search for a national identity outside of the concept of Britain