It seemed a propitious time to read Edward Larson’s Summer for the Gods. This past February, Bill Nye made the (unfortunate, lose-lose) decision to debate young earth creationist Ken Ham at the Creationist Museum . Four months earlier, Texas – which has enormous sway in the textbook industry – once again began working on legislation to “teach the controversy,” a euphemistic way of saying “teach creationism” alongside evolution. This is all well and good, because there is literally nothing else g...

4.5 - Overall an enjoyable and easy read. Excellent summary in the Afterword of the current (as of 2006) status of the creation vs. evolution debate.

I have only labelled a few Pulitzers as “Had any other book won, it would have been an injustice,” but Summer for the Gods earns that ranking.The book capitivated me from the very beginning. It starts off citing the discourse between William Jennings Bryant and Clarence Darrow. Bryant, the 4 time presidential candidate and former Secretary of State, was arguing for the prosecution of Scopes. Clarence Darrow, already known as “the Attorney for the Damned”, had taken up the cause of Thomas Scopes....

4.5 This book leads up to the Scopes Trials by explaining the issues of tension between religion and evolution well before the trial. Williams Jennings Bryant is well covered. The trial is covered in detail and also what impact the controversy had on the debate going forward. Most readers will remember the Scopes Trial from the film Inherit the Wind, and this book makes clear what was accurate in that film and what was not. Intelligent Design today is covered too. It's really a comprehensive and...

In the last year, I have developed an insatiable fascination for the clash between religion and science, specifically as this encounter relates to social policy.  The famous Scopes trial (also commonly referred to as "the Monkey Trial") was the most fervently hyped and widely publicized legal dispute on this matter, and Edward Larson's book does the confrontation justice. The book is divided into three sections:Before:Larson begins by detailing the intellectual leaps that les to Charles Darwin's...

"It's déjà vu all over again.", as the wag said and that's the feeling you wind up with after finishing Edward J. Larson's Summer For the Gods: The Scope's Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. The arguments and counter-arguments discussed in this excellent book about the famous "Monkey" trial of 1925 recur again and again in our own time. I have no doubt that there are court cases winding their way through the judicial maze even now concerning the teaching of evolutio...

Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning book “Summer for the Gods” was a very enlightening book. I really like reading about the conflict between science and religion and getting the true story of this famous “Trial of the Century”.This book gave a great history of the Scopes Trial or the well-known “Monkey Trial”. He describes the run-up to the trial and the trial and the outcome and what it has meant for American society and American culture. We get an intriguing picture of some of the key players, Cl...

I've been going up to NW Wisconsin for several years now with members of the Gregory family to stay in the house once occupied by an ancestor and now used as a vacation retreat. Knowing the area, I can now go up there without a book, confident that the Hayward Public Library twenty or so miles away will have titles worth purchasing. That is where I purchased this history a few days ago.This writer, both a lawyer and an historian, has long specialized on matters pertaining the themes treated in t...

The American controversy over evolution and creation is mainly fought over what is taught in US public school biology classes. Actually, neither someone opposes the teaching of evolution, nor there is a serious debate among biologists over the essential evolutional concept of common descent. The discussion focuses on theology and philosophy. Critics of the evolution usually demand removing it from the classroom, balancing it with some other form of creationist instruction, or teaching it as “jus...

If "Inherit the Wind," a long-running Broadway play and a 1960's movie based on the Scopes trial, is your only familiarity with the 1925 so-called "Monkey Trial/Trial of the Century," you need to read Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion by Edward J. Larson. For an unbiased historian's account of the actual trial and a lawyer's mindset, Mr. Larson provides a thoroughly researched telling of the era's culture, religious and political...

An excellent book that discusses, in very readable form, the historical and intellectual foundations of, and the struggle between, the rural (largely Southern) religious majoritarian anti-modernism of William Jennings Bryan (the Democratic populist of Nebraska, who ran for President in 1896, 1900, 1904, and 1908) and the modern, skeptical, rationalist and ever-courageous Clarence Darrow of Chicago. The fundamental divide in America still today. The afterward clearly traces the rise of recent cre...

Summer for the Gods is phenomenal. The book tells a riveting story well, but it elevates itself over other histories by critically examining the public's later interpretation of the events, and showing all the effects of such interpretation (also probably why it got the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History). “Before” “During” and “And After” are its three parts, covering the build-up to the prosecution, the trial itself, and the public’s reaction to and later interpretation of the events. The book det...

AccessibleDescriptiveThis book is written so that those who *grew up in the American Bible Belt or the American South will easily follow the discussion.*have a basic understanding of the history of the fight for civil rights will easily follow the discussion.*enjoy personalities and characters will also easily follow the discussion.What started out as a publicity stunt turned into a cultural phenomena. Read here how it all came into being.

A meticulously researched account of the 1925 Scopes trial. I was expecting more about the last aspect of the subtitle (the continuing debate over science and religion), so this history wasn't what I was specifically looking for, but I still appreciated how Larson smoothly depicted the nuances of the cultural context of the trial. His account was quite balanced while still depicting clearly the passions of all sides of the debate. The writing was always clear, but the immense amounts of quotatio...

By the late nineteenth century, Darwin's evolutionary theories had been widely accepted by Christian fundamentalists.. The had adopted a form of Lamarckian explanation for changes in form. In fact, James Orr, well-known theologian, wrote in The Fundamentals, " Assume God – as many devout evolutionists do– to be immanent in the evolutionary process, and His intelligence and purpose to be expressed in it; then evolution, so far from conflicting with theism, may become a new and heightened form of

Even the biggest young history enthusiast out there learns something new every once and again. This book was such an occasion. And boy, was it a joyous occasion! After only seeing (and never really getting a basic understanding of) the term "Monkey Trial" on occasion while passing through a thick history textbook during high school, I took great pleasure during my collegiate studies when my professor assigned our class to read this book about this famed "The Trial of the Century." We even got to...

"It would be ridiculous to entrust the education of children to an oligarchy of scientists."William Jennings Bryan (p. 105)The actual courtroom drama in Dayton lasts for less than 50 pages. Half of the book is the lead-up to the jury trial, including the ACLU's premeditated solicitation of a case to challenge anti-evolution statues. Unlike the loose adaption in "Inherit the Wind" (1960), John Scopes was a willing participant to this planned ACLU challenge to the Butler Act of 1924. He was a math...

A interesting and often dramatic account of not only the Scopes Trail but the belief systems which ultimately contended in small town of Dayton Tennessee in 1925. In the build-up to the trail Larson describes the rise of Fundamentalist Christianity, the populist and, more importantly, majoritarian movements lead by William Jennings Bryan and finally the advent of groups like the ACLU advocating for individual rights.Larson remains objective throughout the narrative while conveying a description

An excellent historical account of the first modern media spectacle, when rapid far-reaching communication was young and conservative intolerance was at its most unknown peak, the 1920s (unless today counts). Told in a dry, academic tone, this book isn't for the casually interested looking for entertainment - that would have been the event itself. Yet Larson does a fantastic job researching the event, its causes and effects of its times, and how 80 years later this trial is still being fought in...

Authoritative, comprehensive, detailed and excellently researched account of the 1925 Scopes Trial. All you could ever want or need to know about the trial itself, the people involved, the politics, and the still ongoing controversy and battle between evolution and creationism. An entertaining, accessible and informative read.

Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning work is careful, clear, and revealing. Book thesis: A book solely about the [Scopes] trial and its place in American history; America’s continuing debate over science and religion.This book does precisely what it sets out to do: take a look at the Scopes trial and evaluate what it has meant for American society since that time. In fact, as one reads the book, one finds that Larson accomplishes exactly what he intends to with each chapter. Is it written so clearly

This was a quite interesting book, especially Parts I and II: Before..., and ...During... (the Scopes trial). The book provided many corrections to my “received knowledge” of the trial, such as, that the trial was over whether evolution should be taught in public schools. No, it was about whether any subject should be taught in public schools that the majority of taxpayers paying for those schools don’t want taught. Much more interesting debate! Why should taxpayers be forced to pay for somethin...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review4.5/5 stars Summer for the Gods by Edward J Larson is a nonfiction book exploring everything leading up to, during and after the Scopes trial of the 1920s. This is often referred to as the “monkey trial” where a creationist was battled an evolutionist about the validity of the two world views. It was essentially a battle between whether or not evolution should be taught in schools, but

I expected this book to give me a great picture of the Scopes Monkey Trial; my expectations were met. I didn’t expect to be treated to a detailed history of the larger debate between science and religion in general, but I am so glad that this book had a larger scope than I envisioned. The information about “the trial” was wonderful but what I really enjoyed was how Larson set this trial into historical context.I have always been bothered by the “war” between science and religion. It seems to me

If you happened to have read the play Inherit the Wind, and let it create your impression of the Scopes Monkey Trial, you particularly need to read this book. This is the story of how the Scopes Monkey trial REALLY happened. There are key details that the play doesn't even try to tell you.I'll just mention the two biggest revelations:-The events leading to the Scopes trial were a farce. The town of Dayton, Tennessee was struggling, and the town leaders, gathering in a downtown drugstore, convinc...

Always fascinated by the interplay of science and culture - throw in a good legal battle and I am hooked. This very well researched and written discussion of the Scopes "monkey" trial of 1925 and the continuing debate over what should be taught in our schools and how is very interesting reading and very relevant. I live in Kansas where as recently as 2005 creationists reigned on our state school board and "intelligent Design" was added to our state educational standards. I think most interesting...

If you have been reading my blog over the past year or so, you are aware that I have had more than a passing fascination with the battles in the American courts over the teaching of Intelligent Design, aka Creationism, in high school science class. Having read multiple books on the famous 2005 case in Dover, PA I decided that I would turn some of my attention to the trial with which it is most often compared, the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, TN.I ran across Edward J. Larson's Pulitzer prize winn...

Every spare moment I have lately has been spent reading this fascinating book. Summer for the Gods offers an engaging, thought provoking and evenhanded historical account of the intersection of religion, science, law and politics in America. Larson provides a front row seat at this pivotal case, delving deep into the divergent worldviews that caused a cultural and political fissure that remains to this day. Majoritarian rule, individual liberty, academic freedom, and the separation of church and...

Like many others, I thought the film Inherit the Wind was largely a fictionalized depiction of the Scopes Monkey Trial. This book brings to light the real background and of the antievolution statutes as being the right of a state legislature to determine what may be taught in its schools vs. the academic freedom of teachers. It was interesting to learn about the legal wranglings and the more recent aftermath of, not the facts of the trial, but the mythology of it.

Great history on the scopes trial and debunking of the myths that prevailed. Only complaint is the author seemed to take pity for the creationists where none is warranted.