Deeply religious and sincerely humble, Hugh Miller was a reluctant reformer who is most widely known for his writings on geology and the Scottish Kirk. His strong will, described by some as stubbornness, and his unrelenting opposition to evil and pursuit of truth made Miller determined not to ignore important sociopolitical issues of early nineteenth-century Scotland. His ideas on trade unions, education, poverty, and the franchise received the most attention in his political writing.

Although mildly in favor of general reforms such as those in the Reform Bill of 1832, which gave him the franchise, Miller vigorously opposed many types of radical reformers and reformation schemes such as Chartism. He opposed state-sponsored schemes to help the working class, for example, because he was a self-taught and self-made man who, as a stonemason, wrote poetry, closely observed his natural environment, and studied religion. Other working men, he noticed, were poor...