34 pages • 1 hour read
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
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Edward J. Larson
Edward Larson is a university professor of history at Pepperdine School of Law, where he holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law. Born in Ohio in 1953, Larson earned a law degree from Harvard University and a doctorate in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Larson is the author of several books on history and science, among them An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science, The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783-1789, and the 2020 dual biography Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership. He earned the Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods, which he has followed up with titles on evolution, creation, and eugenics.
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860-July 26, 1925) was a Congressman, politician, and renowned orator. He won three presidential nominations and was Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. Bryan remained active in politics after he left civil service, helping to ratify four amendments: federal income tax, popular election of senators, prohibition, and women’s suffrage. In the last few years of his life, he adopted the cause of restrictive legislation on teaching evolution in public schools. Bryan came to represent fundamentalism and majoritarianism. His renown brought him to Dayton, Ohio, for the Scopes trial, as the face of the prosecution. He had hoped to discredit the theory of evolution during the trial but failed to do so. Bryan died five days after the trial ended.
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow (April 18, 1857-March 13, 1938) was a renowned criminal defense attorney known for his high-profile cases defending political radicals and wealthy murderers. Darrow was an atheist and “delighted in challenging traditional concepts of morality and religion” (71). When he heard that William Jennings Bryan would be on the prosecution team for the infamous Scopes trial, Darrow saw an opportunity both for publicity and to debunk traditional Christian beliefs and notions. He took over the defense for John Scopes and is best known for his fiery cross-examination of Bryan, during which he forced Bryan to admit that not all of the Bible could be taken literally.
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