Practical Utopia
The Many Lives of Dartington Hall

Tells the compelling story of Dartington Hall – a far-reaching social, cultural and education experiment in Devon in the interwar years.

Anna Neima (Author)

9781316517970, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 April 2022

340 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.63 kg

Dartington Hall was a social experiment of kaleidoscopic vitality, set up in Devon in 1925 by a fabulously wealthy American heiress, Dorothy Elmhirst (née Whitney), and her Yorkshire-born husband, Leonard. It quickly achieved international fame with its progressive school, craft production and wide-ranging artistic endeavours. Dartington was a residential community of students, teachers, farmers, artists and craftsmen committed to revivifying life in the countryside. It was also a socio-cultural laboratory, where many of the most brilliant interwar minds came to test out their ideas about art, society, spirituality and rural regeneration. To this day, Dartington Hall remains a symbol of countercultural experimentation and a centre for arts, ecology and social justice. Practical Utopia presents a compelling portrait of a group of people trying to live out their ideals, set within an international framework, and demonstrates Dartington's tangled affinities with other unity-seeking projects across Britain and in India and America.

Introduction: An experiment in the art of living
1. Overview
2. Social and spiritual questing
3. Education for change
4. Creativity for all
5. Regenerating rural life
Conclusion: The afterlife of a utopia.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1]