Practical Utopia

The Many Lives of Dartington Hall

Anna Neima

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English

Cambridge University Press
23 May 2024

British & Irish history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Social & cultural history; Alternative lifestyles

Series: Modern British Histories

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.

By: Anna Neima
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009048729
ISBN 10: 1009048724
Series: Modern British Histories
Pages: 321
Publication Date: 23 May 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Anna Neima completed her doctorate in history at the University of Cambridge and is now a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow. Her first book, The Utopians (2021), tells the story of six communities started around the globe after the First World War.