A social history of the nonconformist ministry in England and Wales, 1800-1930

About this book

"Protestant nonconformity was one of the most significant influences in nineteenth-century Britain, and has rightly received considerable attention from historians. At both local and national level much of its influence was channelled through, and inspired by, the activities and utterances of the professional minister. The names of the most successful were often household words in the Victorian period, and most have attracted a biographer. Yet neither the experiences nor the careers of these pulpit princes were necessarily those of the typical minister - almost 9000 of them in 1900 - who served in the chapels of the main dissenting denominations. Using simple sampling and statistical techniques, this book sets out to recreate the lives, both private and professional, of this less celebrated but faithful and more representative body of men, rescuing them from the anonymisty of the past." -- Book jacket.