"Faraday Life and Letters" is a good read (long out of copyright) and includes a description of his scientific tour of Europe with Sir Humphry Davy during the Napoleonic wars.
The one on Maxwell is particularly interesting, as his religion lead to strong political positions as he was influenced by a Christian Socialist:
"Maxwell did not adopt Maurice's theological positions as a whole, but he did become convinced of one of Maurice's key tenets, that the dehumanization of the working class in an industrializing society was to be prevented by a cooperative approach in which workers were given greater influence though education. Maurice and his friends set up Working Men's Colleges, and Maxwell, seeing this as a vital Christian service, taught Working Men's classes weekly till at least 1866. "
I do like to see the historic use of non-conformist.
Non-conformists and free thinkers/ non-theists teaming up has produced some great outcomes. Think of the popular non-conformist support for Jefferson & Madison in VA in 1786.
The idea of baptists handing out copies of common sense has always had a certain beauty to it.
"Faraday Life and Letters" is a good read (long out of copyright) and includes a description of his scientific tour of Europe with Sir Humphry Davy during the Napoleonic wars.
Google Books: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qa...
There are a number of links to the author's related writings: http://silas.psfc.mit.edu/monopolizingknowledge.net/links.ht...
The one on Maxwell is particularly interesting, as his religion lead to strong political positions as he was influenced by a Christian Socialist:
"Maxwell did not adopt Maurice's theological positions as a whole, but he did become convinced of one of Maurice's key tenets, that the dehumanization of the working class in an industrializing society was to be prevented by a cooperative approach in which workers were given greater influence though education. Maurice and his friends set up Working Men's Colleges, and Maxwell, seeing this as a vital Christian service, taught Working Men's classes weekly till at least 1866. "
http://silas.psfc.mit.edu/Maxwell/
I do like to see the historic use of non-conformist.
Non-conformists and free thinkers/ non-theists teaming up has produced some great outcomes. Think of the popular non-conformist support for Jefferson & Madison in VA in 1786.
The idea of baptists handing out copies of common sense has always had a certain beauty to it.