Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion

Praise for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion

"Edward Larson . . . tells the Scopes story with clarity and energy. . . .

His book may be among the best one-volume primers on an American

intellectual twilight."—Boston Globe

"Larson's work is a thoroughly researched, thoroughly readable retelling

of the tale. It leaves no subplot or character untouched. And when one

considers how powerful the tensions underlying events 72 years ago

remain today, Larson deserves hearty thanks. He's reintroducing us to

vital history that too quickly transformed into fiction and myth. . . .

The Scopes trial is still with us. Larson has elevated its presence from

simplified myth to illuminating fact."—Christian Science Monitor

"Larson's account is an unusually balanced and readable treatment of

the Scopes trial and its complexities. . . . Even better is Larson's ability

to humanize the trial and make it a tale of human folly. . . . The book

is a good read about an important and often misunderstood subject. For

his achievement, Larson deserves high praise."—D. G. Hart, American Historical Review

"Forget the Lindberg kidnapping trial, the Manson trial, or even the O.J.

trial. The real trial of the century was the Scopes Trial, and, although

much has been written about it, nothing comes close to the definitive

history written by Edward J. Larson."—Skeptic

"Edward Larson tells the true story of the Scopes trial brilliantly, and

the truth is a lot more interesting than the myth that was presented to

the public in Inherit the Wind."—Philip Johnson, University of California-Berkeleyand author of Darwin on Trial

"Experts will learn much about the background and details of the

Scopes trial; the general reader will be drawn into the trial as never

before. Inherit the Wind, step aside!"—Will Provine, Cornell University

"A marvelous remake of the drama in Dayton. Summer for the Gods

accomplishes the extraordinary feat of teaching us a good deal that is new

about the trial and its significance, including the behind-the-scenes strategizing of the lawyers, the civil liberties stakes in the outcome, and the realities of its impact on the teaching of evolution in the United States."—Daniel J. Kevles, author of The Physicists: The Historyof a Scientific Community in Modern America

"Summer for the Gods is, quite simply, the best book ever written on the

Scopes trial and its place in American history and myth. The tone is

balanced; the research, meticulous; the prose, sparkling."—Ronald L. Numbers, University of Wisconsin-Madisonand author, The Creationists

"Larson . . . gracefully documents the history of Darwinism, the theory of evolution and the fits and starts through which evolution became pitted against the Bible and fundamentalist religion. . . . Bryan's and Darrow's ghosts still haunt us, and the Scopes trial still holds resonance, as we continue to litigate the role of religion in public life and the power of the state to prescribe what shall be taught in public schools."—New York Times

"Larson brings understanding and perspective to a thorny issue."—Pittsburg Post-Gazette

"Skillfully interweaves the historical with the legal . . . A superbly balanced account, both in narrative as well as analysis. . . . Summer for the

Gods provides a thoughtful, reasoned approach to comprehending a

deep-rooted culture clash, which, although it might change with each

generation, shows little sign of disappearing."—Journal of Southern History

"Larson unlocks the past and renders it gracefully accessible in a narrative style that is easy to follow, despite the complexity of the intellectual

currents and counter-currents of his theme."—Los Angeles Times

"Larson's narrative manages to convey the complexity of the legal issues

as well as the drama of the event in a fluid and focused manner."—Journal of American History

"The real story of the Scopes trial, it turns out, is more interesting,

more mischievous, and more perverse than the complacent received

wisdom. A historian of science and a lawyer, Professor Larson has written a devastatingly good book."—Michigan Law Review

"Larson has done a wonderful job of writing an engaging yet scholarly

account of the issues surrounding this trial."—Choice

"Larson writes with clarity, insight, and poignancy for our times as well

as for this past history."—Library Journal

"Much more than a lively, informative piece of historical reconstruction and criticism: It is as relevant to present controversies as it would

have been in the 1920s. . . . a scholarly, extremely well-documented,

engrossing narrative that is accessible to a general audience."—Bioscience

"Magnificent reconstruction of the Scopes trial and its significance."—Church History

"A gripping narrative."—Books & Culture

"An engagingly written book that not only sets the record straight

about the Scopes trial and the events surrounding it, but also shows

how one of the most famous cases in U.S. judicial history became an

enduring legend."—America

"Summer for the Gods is a remarkable retelling of the trial and the events

leading up to it, proof positive that truth is stranger than science."—Amazon.com

"Larson both challenges and enables history teachers to rethink their

teaching of the Scopes trial, McCarthyism, and the role of popular

culture in shaping perceptions of historical events."—History Teacher

""The most widely publicized misdemeanor case in American history." That is Edward J. Larson's description of the "monkey trial" in his

1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial

and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. With that

debate again at a rolling boil, that book by Larson, professor of history and law at the University of Georgia, demonstrates that the trial

pitted a modernism with unpleasant dimensions against a religious

fundamentalism that believed, not without reason, that it was faithful

to progressive values."—Newsweek

"Edward Larson's training both in legal history and in the history of

science serves him well in Summer for the Gods. . . . Larson unlocks

the past and renders it gracefully accessible in a narrative style that is

easy to follow, despite the complexity of the intellectual currents and

counter-currents of his theme."—The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Careful and evenhanded analysis dispels the mythologies and caricatures in film and stage versions of the trial, leaving us with a far clearer

picture of the cultural warfare that still periodically erupts in our

classes and courts."—Booklist

"The originality of his book arises in large part from its thoughtful,

evenhanded treatment of both sides in the confrontation-and the seriousness with which he takes the opposing convictions about religion,

science, and their relationship to the law that clashed in Dayton . . .

Larson's account of the trial and the legal issues involved in it [are] particularly illuminating . . . [He] provides a fascinating account of how the trial became the legend that was eventually passed on by Inherit the

Wind . . . [This is an] excellent book."—The New York Review of Books

"A Spencer Tracy film, Inherit the Wind, was based on the [John Scopes

Trial] and has shaped popular memories of it. But, as Edward J. Larson

shows in this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the film's sinister mood is misleading . . . Larson artfully separates myths from realities to tell a more

complicated and convincing story. He also summarizes the continuing

efforts of Tennessee and other southern states to keep creationism on the

curriculum and evolution off it."—Patrick Allitt, Times Literary Supplement

"This book has already won a Pulitzer Prize, but it's worth calling

attention to again. . . . Larson . . . finds new things to say about the

famous "monkey trial" of 1925 and says them well. Among other

things, he shows how the trial helped to break down the longstanding

intellectual accommodation between Darwinism and Protestant theology, highlights the tensions between celebrity lawyer Clarence Darrow

and the rest of John Scopes's defense team, and demonstrates how the

enormously influential drama Inherit the Wind significantly warped

the trial and its aftermath."—Luther Spoehr, Providence Journal-Bulletin

Scholarly, informative . . . fair and meticulous . . . IN some ways, America seems to be only just learning the truth of the Scopes trial and the implications of the debate over evolution. [Larson's] book is a critical piece of the educational process."—First Things

A stunning and well-documented narrative that places the trial in an historical, legal, religious, and scientific context, and then continues beyond to assess its impact on the tension between science and religion that persists right up to the present."—Quarterly Review of Biology

Larson . . . is becoming one of the leading historians of his generation.—Gregg Easterbrook, Washington Monthly