The Summer Schools and Other Educational Activities of the British Liberal Party

The summer school was first adapted for political purposes in Great Britain by the Fabian Society early in the present century. In the period before the World War, the only other political organization that sponsored summer schools—and in this case only intermittently—was the Independent Labor party. The Liberal party, beginning with the establishment of the Liberal Summer School in 1921, was the first major party to take up the idea. Neither the Fabian nor the Liberal summer school was founded as part of the official organization of the respective parent bodies; both, in their inception, were spontaneous movements initiated by enthusiastic members of the rank and file. The Fabian Summer School, however, soon became an integral part of the organization of the Fabian Society, while the Liberal Summer School has remained throughout its existence an auxiliary party organization.