5.2 Introduction

This extract of material is taken from the opening section of the final case study in A182 Small country, big history: themes in the history of Wales. In it Professor Chris Williams discusses the extent to which the Welshness of David Lloyd George, the only Welshman ever to have become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was seen as important either by Lloyd George himself or by others.

Though it is not evident from this sample, the course focuses on the way that this theme is developed by Kenneth O. Morgan, one of the greatest historians of the period. Students are invited to read Morgan's essay ‘David Lloyd George and Wales’ and many of the sources that were used in writing it, and to answer key questions about the function of historical biography and the way that individual lives are treated by historians.