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    • Week 01: Test
    • Week 02: Diamond (MT)
    • Week 03: Technological Fix
    • Week 04: Harari (Part 1)
    • Week 05: Harari (Part 2) and Johnson (Part 1)
    • Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)
    • Week 07: Superfund (Part 1)
    • Week 08: Superfund (Part 2)
    • Week 09: Climate Science (Reidy)
    • Week 10: Climate Science (Steffen)
    • Week 11: Darwin
    • Week 12: Gould, Specter, Harris
    • Week 14: Harari (Part 3)
    • Week 15: Webinar

Category: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Air Pumps & Electrical Machines

October 4, 2018 Kayla Drake 1 Comment

Government and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines for the following reasons: these inventions play a role in…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Where are the “Old-Timers” of Science Today?

October 3, 2018 Nick Lemon 4 Comments

In the context of this week’s reading, air pumps and electrical machines represent progress and change. Governments and religious entities,…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Dangers of Air Pumps and Electrical Machines!

Will Werner 4 Comments

The theme of Priestley’s quote at the beginning is that governments or specifically the English hierarchy had a reason to…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Truth Found in Contradiction

Patrick Phattharaampornchai 2 Comments

Science is often seen as something that exists outside the realms of politics or religion, however, for Joseph Priestley the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Govermental Fear of No Control

Kaylor Althoff 3 Comments

The Government was afraid of improved technology because the air pump and electrical machines gave normal people the power of…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science and Society: A Dangerous Pair

Ellie Polk 4 Comments

Johnson uses a few examples in The Invention of Air about how technologies such as air pumps and electrical machines…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Invention of Politics and Social Structure

Tyler Patrick 2 Comments

Governments and religions should fear electrical machines and air pumps because that is what ends up shaping what governments and…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Air Pumps to Atomic Bombs

October 2, 2018 Marika Feduschak 2 Comments

             Priestly’s revolutionary ideologies spanned his religious, scientific and political perspectives as one interconnected web; they informed and affected one…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

This is Shocking

Ayla Johnsen 2 Comments

I think that they should be afraid of air pumps and electrical machines because in that time period they were…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

What is Progress?

Cameron Graves 1,272 Comments

Air pumps and electrical machines used to send shivers down the spines of English politicians and priests. The idea that such machines could…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Progress Means Reinvention

Mandy Hawkins 4 Comments

Governments and religions have every right to fear things such as air pumps and electrical machines. Inventions like these really…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Week 6

Sydney Jones 1 Comment

This idea of governments and religions fearing these technologies is an important part of history. As Johnson states in The…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Boo!

Alexis Thull 2 Comments

These inventions could change religion and governments in very diffrent ways but both with a negative outcomes for their side.…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Advance to Go (oh no)

October 1, 2018 Owen Pendergast 2 Comments

Governments and religions should fear “air pumps and electrical machines” because of what theses scientific advancements and others like it…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Week 6

Ryan Smart 1 Comment

Fearing things such as an air pump or electrical machine is something that governments and religions have to take into…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Inhale, Exhale

Sean Jungst 1 Comment

Technology certainly has drawbacks and negative impacts on humans. However, there are many reasons that governments should fear air pumps…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science wins the gold medal again.

Ben Schwartz 1 Comment

Governments and religions typically strive to maintain the current social order of the hierarchies they oversee. Science, in contrast, questions…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

the patented manufacturing of a substance referred to as air.

Colby Darr 1 Comment

Governments have always had a disconnect with the people that is governs.  That may not be totally visible but the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Power to the Pump

Catherine Vejvoda 3 Comments

I think that governments and religions fear the air pump and the electrical machine because they enabled one of the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

A Fear of Advancement

Chance Ronning 1 Comment

Governments and religions should fear air pumps not because of what an air pump is, but because it is a…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Sciences Disruption of Beliefs

Logan Bonney 1 Comment

In Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, he argues that societies are only possible due to shared beliefs. Reading The Invention of Air…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Proof or Belief?

J. Beckett Sweeney

Shortly after the epigraph quote is repeated on page 130, Johnson explains the battling nature of politics, religion, and science.…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science and technology, should we fear it?

Linnea Fristam

“The English hierarchy has equal reason to tremble at an air pump, or an electrical machine” (Johnson, 148) In the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Air Pumps and Electrical Machines…Terrifying

Carly Zell 1 Comment

Religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines because science challenges the very being of what religion is. Priestly wrote…

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Posted in: Course Material, Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Invention of Air (and soda)

Madelyn Hillis 1 Comment

In his novel, Johnson asserts, through his detailed analysis of Joseph Priestley’s life, that the air pump and/or electricity should…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Unlimited Power: The Social Cataclysm of Technology and Science

Morgan Johnson 2 Comments

Governments, religions, and other relatively static institutes that hold power over large numbers of people should fear air pumps and…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

scary air

Fritz Arnold 1 Comment

Inventing air would’ve been quite the feat. Joseph Priestly discovered air which led to the reasoning how and why combustion…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Fear the Science

Tyler Krueger 1 Comment

I think this quote by Priestley is an interesting way of saying that governments and religions fear science. In the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Why are Governments/Religions Afraid of Oxygen and Electricity?

Sophie Black 1 Comment

In Johnson’s Invention of Air, the idea of governments or religions fearing air pumps and electrical machines is mentioned extensively. This…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science is Fact…?

Chris Tompkins 2 Comments

The use of the air pump and electrical machines are good, specific examples of things that kicked off the Industrial…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Air Scare

Maxwell Alvord 1 Comment

The air pump is one if the few of the few innovations in earths history that has had such an…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The power of influence

Peyton McElroy 2 Comments

Priestly uses this quote to make the abilities of technology and science very clear. New found technologies and science are…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Discrepancies Between Science and Government

Mathew Shea 1 Comment

Governments should fear air pumps and electrical machines because with new inventions governments can be challenged or even toppled. This…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

No more beer with your cereal

Wyatt Ayers

When people started drinking coffee and tea, instead of beer in the morning, many more things were accomplished throughout the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Leisurely Revolutions

Shayne Utter 1 Comment

Throughout history, there has been an undeniable trend of an increase in comfort and ease of life for the elite…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Fear of the Future

Nicole Eifert 1 Comment

Religions have reason to fear things like air pumps and electricity not for the science behind them, but for the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Fight for Power and Understanding

Nick Leach

I believe what Joseph Priestley was trying to get at when stating science is something to be concerned about for…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

We Choose To Advance Science, Not Because It Is Easy But Because It Is Hard

Madalyn Alderman 1 Comment

Why should governments and religions fear air pumps and electrical machines? Why climb the highest mountain? Why does Rice play…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Information flow leads to change

Kathleen Warren 1 Comment

The statement that governments and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines is a comment about the fact that…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid!

Colleen May 3 Comments

Fear of the unknown. Otherwise known as an unwillingness to undergo change. Why should governments and religions fear the inventions…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Good, The Bad, and The Energy

Jacob Lunsford 1 Comment

The notion that the great English empire and hierarchy should tremble at the air pump or electrical machine, would have…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Start Thinking, the goverment hates it.

Anthony Johnson 1 Comment

  In the 18th century, the collective advancements in energy and how to apply it to businesses within society has…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Priestley, Politics, and Air Pumps

Hali Kapperud 1 Comment

Joseph Priestley stated, “The English hierarchy (if there be anything unsound in its constitution) has equal reason to tremble at…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Air Pumps and Electrical Machines: A Threat to be Reckoned With.

Hunter Strobel

Governments and religions have reason to fear air pumps and electrical machines because of what those machines represent. As science…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

One Powerful Air Pump

Conner Cross

In Observations on Air, written in 1774, Joseph Priestly relates the effects of a surge of knowledge on religion to…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Why it’s Worse to be Afraid

Natalie Carlson 1 Comment

Within Johnson’s book and Priestly’s life, governments and religions had reason to fear things such as air pumps and electrical…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Protected: Please dont burn the scientists

Anna

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Coffee House Culture and The Free Market of Thought: Cultural Interchange in the 1700’s

Mary Hill Young

HSTR 207 – Science and Technology in World History Mary Hill Young 10/1/18     What a government has to…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Power of the Air Pump

Cameron Durfee

Joseph Priestly states at the beginning of Steven Johnson’s book The Invention of Air that the English hierarchy should fear…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Running on Air

Diana Lester 1 Comment

Governments and religions do not need to fear air pumps and electrical machines. Governments and religions have to fear what…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Intrigue Ignorantly Changed Us All

Tyler Trudnowski 1 Comment

Many scientific inventions can change society in different ways, big and small. Governments and religions should be cautious of air…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Stifled

Seamus Andersen

Fear is unequivocally tied with any type of scientific progress; people who are subject to change often times can not…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Big Bad Technology

Kilian Swirtz 1

Governments are put together and run on the basis of ideas that have been used in the past. They operate…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

change is scary

Cassie Andrews

Air pumps and electrical machines represent scientific innovation and progress. Innovation wasn’t always a good thing, it meant discounting the…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Air Johnson

Sage McCleary

In Johnson’s book The Invention of Air, Johnson explains that Priestley’s introduction to Observations on Air made bold claims in…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Progress vs. Politics

Connor Ludwig 1 Comment

Steven speaks about how governments fear the air pump and the electrical machines. It’s not that they fear specially those…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Reactionaries, keep on reacting.

Noah Hense 1 Comment

Governments and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines because of the potential for new revolutions in industry and…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Fearing Air

Evan Scaraglino

Governments and religions should fear the Air pump and electrical machines because they go against the mass beliefs of what…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science

Erica Dobrowski

Johnson’s response to Priestly’s statement “The English hierarchy (if there be anything unsound in its constitution) has equal reason to…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Dividing Scientific Device Developments

John Jones

While governments have no real reason to fear air pumps, electrical machines, or steam engines because of their inherent qualities,…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Can Air Pumps Destroy Religions?

David Todd 1 Comment

Governments and religions do not need to fear air pumps and electrical machines themselves, they need to fear the new…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Viva La Resistance

Chisum Green 1 Comment

Holding an ever-important presence in the everyday life of the working-class citizens in the late 1700’s, the Church and country’s…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Corruptions of Science: Defense of Governmental Faith

Amanda Larson 1 Comment

Governments and religions should be afraid of air pumps and electrical machines because they mean scientific progress. Scientific progress will…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Religion is the hunter and Science is the prey

Jose Alarcon Cascales

For Johnson, these two groups were the vital pillar of the English country. Therefore, if they were reduced or they…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science is in, Dogma is out

Hilary Rosa

Scientific discoveries and technologies such as the air pump and electrical machines have radical implications for politics and religion. Scientific…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Genetics of Power

William Green 1 Comment

Johnson was one of the great thinkers, a man capable of seeing the bigger picture, the pieces (politics, religion, science)…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Lions and Tigers and Science, oh my!

Kendra Fischer

In Joseph Priestley’s progressive writings, it is noted that the English hierarchy, both the religious and political aspects, should be…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Innovation is Scary!

Emily OBrien 1 Comment

In Johnson’s Invention of Air, there is the idea discussed that air pumps and electrical machines should produce fear in…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

A Piece from Priestly

Hannah Ludlow

In the epiparagraph prompting this blog, Priestly asserts that the mightiest of empires should fear even the smallest inventions. As…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

How Far May We Go?

Ty Gentry 1 Comment

Governments and religions should not fear air pumps and electrical machines themselves, but rather what they symbolize: the forward march…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science: Pursuit of the Truth

Jason Pichette

Throughout The Invention of Air, author Steven Johnson outlines some of the many important revelations during the study of oxygen,…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Angels and Demons

Dexter Jarrett 1 Comment

As Steve Johnson quoted, scientist Joseph Priestley, in the Invention of Air, “The English hierarchy if there be anything unsound…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Priestley’s Paradise

Blaze Wiseman

According to Steven Johnson’s The Invention of Air, governments and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines due to…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Science Vs. Religion

Bryce Whited 1 Comment

In Johnson’s work titled, The Invention of Air, he discusses how technology and science threaten the current order of both…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Question Everything.

Sorcha Brooks

1) According to Steven Johnson, governments or religions fear air pumps and electrical machines because governments and religions should fear…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Priestley: Jack of All Trades, Master of Some

Conor Bianchi

Priestly’s quote about the governments fearing the “air pump, or an electrical machine”, shouldn’t be taken entirely literally. Rather, “unsound”…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Invention of Air- Eddie Cooke

Edward Cooke

Johnson discusses Priestley’s particular knack for challenging the ‘status quo’ not only in religion, but in science, and political philosophy.…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Fear the Machine

John Stoppler

Throughout history of science there has probably has been very few inventions as important as the air pump. It can…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

What Our Leaders Fear

Spencer Felice 1 Comment

Governments should fear the invention of inventions such as the air pump and electrical machines because the potential in dependency…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Does Parliament have Nightmares of Electric Machines?

Steve Quinn

The air pump and electrical machines are objects to be feared because they represent the enlightenment and advancement in collective…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

air: oxygen or enemy

Ellis Knoll

According to Johnson, governments or religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines because “just as Priestley had demystified what…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Along Comes Priestly

Tyler Ewald

And with him, came challenge. Challenges of modern beliefs. Modern ways of thinking, interpreting, and understanding. Why should governments or…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

New beginnings for Priestley

Alexia Gonzales

Religions, more so than governments, should fear air pumps and electrical machines. Throughout the second part of the book, Johnson…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Politics, Religion, and Science

Matt Muir

According to Joseph Priestly, governments and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines because they are signs of a…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Fear of the Unknown

Jacob Kelley

Air pumps and electrical machines may seem trivial in the grand scheme of society and government today, but they are…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

hehe

Ben Wallace

So what it looks like to me is that the European government feared the air pump and the electrical machines,…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Priestley: The First Airbender

Audrey Schied

Governments and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines, not necessarily because of the nature of the inventions themselves,…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Priestly Perspective

Cole Satrom

Priestly was a true renaissance man. He was able to blend science, religion, and politics into a rational series of…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

This Week on Fear Factor

Alex Judge 1 Comment

One reason that religions in particular might have to fear air pumps and electrical machines could be a situation in…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

The Checks and Balances of Science, Institutions, Power, and Control

Logan Vining

Governments and religions should fear air pumps and electrical machines because they have the power to keep these institutions in…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Surfing 18th cent U.K.

September 30, 2018 Patrick Wolff

Eighteenth and nineteenth century governments and religion should have feared air pumps and electrical machines for several reasons. The most…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

How Religion and Politics are “Shook” by Air

Cody Coffin

When it comes to air, Religion is an important part of. The spirit of the soul was of “mephitic air”…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

God’s work

Mckinley Paine 1 Comment

I the reading and through discussions in class it would seem apparent that governments and religions should fear the air…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Foundation of Money

September 29, 2018 Rachel Bragg

The largest revelation of the 18th century was the improvement of the technology available to the average person and by…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

Week 6 Blog Post

Bryce Dawkins

Bryce Dawkins Paragraph 1: The church or religions have been a powerful thing for many centuries. Religions and faith have…

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Posted in: Week 06: Johnson (Part 2)

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