Here is a history of one Ukraine town, a microcosm of Russia. Hughesovka (later Stalino and Donetsk) was a mining and steel town founded in the 1870s by Welsh entrepreneur John Hughes and seventy Welsh workers. This book traces the town's shifts from patriarchal beginnings through the Russian revolutions, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Nazi occupation and the collapse of Communism and 1990s' rising Ukraine nationalism, to Ukraine post-independence. Partly a revisiting of the making of Colin Thomas' 1991 award-winning TV documentary, "Hughesovka and the New Russia", "Dreaming a City" is a special mixture of Russian and Welsh social and political history; travel journalism, and a tribute to Welsh historian Gwyn Alf Williams, as well as being a personal memoir of a life in TV and history. Probing important themes such as capitalism and communism; internationalism and nationalism, in addition to freedom and exploitation, the author uses the city as a metaphor to explore a retreat from political idealism, and the nature of hope and disillusion. Reviews of the author's documentaries: The Dragon has Two Tongues - "It's... uniquely provocative approach to history will have sent more than one documentary film maker...back to the drawing board" (The Times) The Divided Kingdom - "The name of Colin Thomas...a guarantee of intelligence and scrupulous integrity" (The Financial Times) Hughesovka and the New Russia and the UK network-transmitted Border Crossing on Raymon Williams - "Splendid" (The Guardian) Includes a free DVD of "Hughesovka and the New Russia". link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=radtFqsEFlc::clip of DVD
