In the last two posts, I’ve explored several aspects of Steven Johnson’s book about Joseph Priestley: The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and The Birth of America.  In the spirit of the original Bibliotheca Alexandria, I identify here some of the key publications of Joseph Priestley, establishing here Bibliotheca Priestley.

I am going to use the subtitle of Johnson’s book as way to inventory some of Priestley’s publications.  In most cases, I’ve been able to find links that will bring to a copy of the original document published by Priestley.

It should be noted that Priestley emphasized in many of his books the importance of history.  For Priestley this was a way to understand the progress of ideas, and he wrote books of history in fields as diverse as politics, science and religion.  For those of us in science education, his book on the History and Present State of Electricity is a valuable source how this man approached the history and philosophy of science.  His book was used a standard text for more than a hundred years.

Science and Education Although education is not a subtitle in Johnson’s book, I thought it would be valuable to you connect science and education, and show that Priestley made important contributions here.  Priestley was as much an educator as he was a natural philosopher or scientist.  I inventory four books here, two of them in science.

• The Rudiments of English Grammar Adapted to the Use of Schools (1761) Summary of the book.
• (1765) of book.
• The History and Present State of Electricity with Original Experiments (1767) Summary of book.
• 
• Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1774 – 1777)  Summary of book.

Faith. Priestley was born into what was known as a dissenting religious family, meaning they did not conform to the Church of England.  Indeed Priestley matriculated from a dissenting religious academy having majored in theological studies.  He became minister of a church in Nantwich and established a school there, and the curriculum he devised included natural philosophy and involved his students in hands on learning.  It was this teaching experience that led to his writing of Rudiments.  Priestley’s ideas on religion were those of a rationalist, and he believed that that experiences in the natural world (natural philosophy) would lead to revealed religious truths.  His views were did match the religious orthodoxy, but did find acceptable among America’s founding fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson.

Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion (1772 – 1774).  A summary of half a century of liberal theologians’ views.

Revolution Dissenters in any country are often viewed by their government in ways that lead to the development of strict laws to control their behavior.  In the 1700s in England there were a number of laws passed that especially were designed to punish religious dissenters.  Priestley’s 1768 book was one of the first publications that charted a course for liberal political theory.  It is interesting to explore Priestley’s ideas in light of Thomas Jefferson’s idea that church and state should be separated.  In Priestley’s England, it was a crime to dissent from the Church of England, and in the American colonies, dissent was not tolerated until Virginia passed the first law protecting individuals from other’s religious views.  The state could not establish a religion.  This became the forerunner to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  Priestley was a leader in this kind of thinking.

Resources on Joseph Priestley

• The Joseph Priestley House, Northumberland, Pennsylvannia
• American Chemical Society on Priestley
• Biography on Joseph Priestley on Wikipedia
• Video on Priestley as a Natural Philosopher