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 focusses on the contribution it made to adult education during this time and the educational settlement movement with which Rowntree and his Trustees were closely associate. 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 promoting the Society’s Peace Testimony and support for itinerant Quaker ministry. It 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.

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