Edward J. Larson is a professor with a joint appointment in history and law at the University of Georgia. A graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School, he received his doctorate in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is also the author of Evolution's Workshop: God and Science on the Galapagos Islands and lives in Athens, Georgia.
""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
"A gripping narrative."--Books & Culture
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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 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
"Larson brings understanding and perspective to a thorny
issue."--Pittsburg Post-Gazette
"Larson has done a wonderful job of writing an engaging yet
scholarly account of the issues surrounding this
trial."--Choice
"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 writes with clarity, insight, and poignancy for our times
as well as for this past history."--Library Journal
"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
"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
"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
"Magnificent reconstruction of the Scopes trial and its
significance."--Church History
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
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
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
Larson . . . is becoming one of the leading historians of his
generation.--Gregg Easterbrook, Washington Monthly
""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
"A gripping narrative."--Books & Culture
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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 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
"Larson brings understanding and perspective to a thorny
issue."--Pittsburg Post-Gazette
"Larson has done a wonderful job of writing an engaging yet
scholarly account of the issues surrounding this
trial."--Choice
"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 writes with clarity, insight, and poignancy for our times
as well as for this past history."--Library Journal
"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
"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
"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
"Magnificent reconstruction of the Scopes trial and its
significance."--Church History
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
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
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
Larson . . . is becoming one of the leading historians of his
generation.--Gregg Easterbrook, Washington Monthly
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