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This book is a history of the first fifty years of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT), one of three trusts established by the Quaker philanthropist Joseph Rowntree in 1904. It focuses on the contribution of the JRCT to adult education in these years, in particular the educational settlement movement with which Rowntree and his trustees were closely associated. It relates the settlements to the work of other adult education providers, and assesses their educational philosophy and impact. The book also makes a contribution to the wider history of the Society of Friends in modern Britain, exploring, for example, the JRCT's role in the promotion of the Society's peace testimony and its support for an itinerant Quaker ministry. It traces the evolution of Quaker philanthropy, and examines how Friends' social concerns were affected by the historical circumstances of the first half of the twentieth century, including two world wars, the mass unemployment of the 1930s and the emergence of the modern welfare state.

ISBN 1 85072 310 9; 266 pages; 2004
Published by William Sessions Ltd, York

'ably written and well-researched ... thorough ... might well be studied to advantage by social, economic, and political historians, as well as those who plan social policy' - Journal of Religious History.

'fascinating ... the book can be commended as providing a great insight into the benign paternalism of Edwardian and later Quakerism and of the trajectory of the adult education movements in the first half of the twentieth century' - Quaker Studies.

'The modest title of this book belies the range and interest of its content ... an invaluable contribution towards a more rounded appreciation of adult education in the twentieth century' - Northern History.