Pioneers of social change.

The struggle of dedicated men and women against monstrous injustice and incredible apathy is vividly described by Royston Pike. This is the story of the courageous few whose passion to reform the world was met by ridicule and persecution, though the reforms they brought about now seem so obviously necessary that we marvel at the opposition they aroused. The barbarity of the penal system and public executions, the appalling condition of hospitals and asylums, the subjection of women and exploitation of children, the hostility to birth control, were some of the ugliest blots on English social life not so long ago. The 'do- gooders' were derided, then as now. How they succeeded against apparently impossible odds makes an inspiringtive, stranger and more absorbing than fiction. Royston Pike is the author of many popular books, including Ethics of the Great Religions, Encyclopedia of Religion and and Faiths of Many Lands. In this latest book he breaks new ground by showing the dramatic clash of ideas and personalities in an age which feared its Progressives while priding itself on Pro- Religions, gress .