This book explores the role and impact of the settlement house movement in the global development of social welfare and the social work profession. It traces the transnational history of settlement houses and examines the interconnections between the settlement house movement, other social and professional movements and social research. Looking at how the settlement house movement developed across different national, cultural and social boundaries, this book show that by understanding its impact, we can better understand the wider global development of social policy, social research and the social work profession.

A spiritualist, mystic, historian and lifelong collector of antiquities, J S M Ward (1885-1949) embodied the cultural turmoil of an age of collapsing empires, religious fragmentation and world war. The Abbey Folk Park he started in 1934 at New Barnet, north of London, was an innovative history museum where Ward's interest in esoteric heritage, world cultures and the occult attracted much attention. Unfairly disgraced in a sensational court case in May 1945, he and his followers departed England for Cyprus in self-imposed exile, along with his stunning collection of artefacts. After Ward's death, both the community and his collection moved to Queensland, Australia, where a new Abbey Museum now thrives just north of Brisbane. This book traces John Ward's extraordinary life and career for the first time, from Edwardian Freemasonry and wartime spiritualism to his apocalyptic visions as a second world war threatened to engulf Europe. His lively museum fused a passion for Britain's disappearing heritage with a conviction that western civilisation would shortly collapse. These vivid concerns -- so often treated in isolation -- come together in J S M Ward's curious and eccentric life story.