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

ISBN: 046507510X

ISBN13: 9780465075102

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

The Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Scopes Trial and the battle over evolution and creation in America's schools.
In the summer of 1925, the sleepy hamlet of Dayton, Tennessee, became the setting for one of the twentieth century's most contentious courtroom dramas, pitting William Jennings Bryan and the anti-Darwinists against a teacher named John Scopes, represented by Clarence Darrow and the ACLU, in a famous debate over science, religion, and their place in public education. That trial marked the start of a battle that continues to this day in cities and states throughout the country.
Edward Larson's classic Summer for the Gods -- winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History -- is the single most authoritative account of this pivotal event. An afterword assesses the state of the battle between creationism and evolution, and points the way to how it might potentially be resolved.

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Format: Paperback

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
"...A trivial thing full of humbuggery and hyprocrisy"

The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 combined two great American virtues: 1.) Individual Rights and 2.) The need to make a quick buck. One of the aspects of Larson's book that really comes through is how staged the whole trial was. From the initial meeting of the town fathers with Scopes to convince him to be a Defendant, to the State's decision to nolle prosse the conviction after it was overturned on a technicality, most everything...

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Rated 5 stars
The most publicized misdemeanor case in American history

Edward Larson has accomplished something wonderful with this book. In only 266 pages (318 including footnotes and index), he has captured the flow of cultural issues surrounding science, education, and religion in the early twentieth century, the political goals and maneuvering of the parties involved, the actual Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee with the dénouement of the appeal, the falsifying of the events involved in...

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Rated 5 stars
Balanced and accurate account of Monkey Trial

A very well written account of not only the historical aspect of but also the legacy of the Scopes trial. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of the book. Edward Larson writes in a style that is easy to follow and understandable. He divides the book into three sections: Before, during and after the trial. In each section he guides and lays out the historical background of the events and players involved in the Scopes trial...

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Rated 5 stars
Proves again that the real story is always more interesting.

Edward Larson's "Summer for the Gods" is a masterpiece of historical writing for several reasons: Mr. Larson always maintains his objectivity; the story is set in the proper context of its times; and finally Mr. Larson devotes attention to the effect of the infamous Scopes trial. Having been raised on "Inherit the Wind," the fictional version of the trial, I was astounded to learn the truth behind the trial and of its...

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