The author traces the evolution of the Junior Republic, founded by George in Freeville, NY, in 1895, from a fresh-air camp for city slum children to a daring experiment in juvenile self-government. He shows how the work of George and his associates both reflected and influenced other trends in the thought and activity of the Progressive Era, and documents the close relationship between the Junior Republic and social experiments in other parts of the world. He places the Junior Republic movement in the broader context of the social and economic forces that were reshaping American life in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, as well as in the context of anti-institutional reform. Footnotes, illustrations, bibliographical note, index