Essay Instructions: This is an essay to be written from this book:
Larson, Edward J. Summer for the Gods (New York: Basic Books, 1997)
The Scopes Trial, or the “Monkey Trial” as the he media called it, was the most famous trial in the 20th century, if not all of American history. The trial occurred in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, and portrayed a showdown between the Bible and God versus Charles Darwin over the issue of the origins of humankind. Specifically, did humans evolve in a week as the Book of Genesis tells us, or did humans evolve gradually from lower animals, such as apes, over several millenia. When it ended, conventional urban mainstream media, and later generations of historians, proclaimed that evolution triumphed over religious fundamentalism. While science teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution, his attorney, the famous Clarence Darrow of Chicago, demolished the Biblical views of attorney, and witness for the state, William Jennings Bryan, former Secretary of State and multiple times the Democratic Party Presidential candidate.
In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Edward Larson cautions us not to accept such conclusions and results. Larson notes that the Darwinian evolutionists did not destroy the fundamentalists as commonly believed because the arguments still rage today with the fundamentalist movement larger, stronger, and more persistent than previously stated.
For this essay, you are to first explain the context in which the Scopes trial took place. Why Dayton, Tennessee? Why 1925? Describe the historical, political, economic, and religious conditions in both Dayton and the nation at that time. Next, you are to choose three (3) important actors (or groups of actors) listed below and explain how their individual backgrounds, values, behavior, and choices shaped the Scopes trial. Last, you should address the post-trial developments to the present and how the Scopes trial has shaped the present debate. How does Larson see the present debate?
Make sure your essay is well-organized, well-written, with a proper introduction and conclusion.
People:
1 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)/Arthur Garfield Hays, attorney
2 George W. Rappleyea
3 John T. Scopes
4 Clarence Darrow
5 William Jennings Bryan, Sr
6 John T. Raulston
7 John R. Neal