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

Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
by Edward J. Larson

Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $6.38
You Save: $9.57 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.25 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Edward J. Larson
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2006-10-02
ISBN: 046507510X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Basic Books

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

Book Review: Monkey trouble.
Summary: 4 Stars

This is an excellent and well-researched account of the Scopes Monkey Trial and the author skillfully dismantles much of the mythology surrounding the event. Recommended for anyone on either side of the evolution debate.

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

If you haven't seen the film version of Inherit the Wind, you might have read it in high school. And even people who have never heard of either the movie or the play probably know something about the events that inspired them: The 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," during which Darwin's theory of evolution was essentially put on trial before the nation. Inherit the Wind paints a romantic picture of John Scopes as a principled biology teacher driven to present scientific theory to his students, even in the teeth of a Tennessee state law prohibiting the teaching of anything other than creationism. The truth, it turns out, was something quite different. In his fascinating history of the Scopes trial, Summer for the Gods, Edward J. Larson makes it abundantly clear that Truth and the Purity of Science had very little to do with the Scopes case. Tennessee had passed a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution, and the American Civil Liberties Union responded by advertising statewide for a high-school teacher willing to defy the law. Communities all across Tennessee saw an opportunity to put themselves on the map by hosting such a controversial trial, but it was the town of Dayton that came up with a sacrificial victim: John Scopes, a man who knew little about evolution and wasn't even the class's regular teacher. Chosen by the city fathers, Scopes obligingly broke the law and was carted off to jail to await trial.

What happened next was a bizarre mix of theatrics and law, enacted by William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Though Darrow lost the trial, he made his point--and his career--by calling Bryan, a noted Bible expert, as a witness for the defense. 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.


In the summer of 1925, the sleepy hamlet of Dayton, Tennessee, became the setting for one of the 20th century’s most contentious dramas: the Scopes trial that pit William Jennings Bryan and the anti-Darwinists against a teacher named John Scopes into 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 Dover, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Cobb County, Georgia, and many other cities and states throughout the country. Edward Larson’s classic, Summer for the Gods, received the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1998 and is the single most authoritative account of a pivotal event whose combatants remain at odds in school districts and courtrooms. For this edition, Larson has added a new preface that assesses the state of the battle between creationism and evolution, and points the way to how it might potentially be resolved.

Science, Nature & How It Works Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Books for the Reading Lawyer: Prizewinners
The Supreme Court in United States History, Vol. 1: 1789-1821 ImageThe Supreme Court in United States History, Vol. 1: 1789-1821
by Charles Warren
Beard Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.91
Price in other shops: $34.95
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (P.S.) ImageManhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (P.S.)
by James L. Swanson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $15.95
Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder ImageBlind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder
by James B. Stewart
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2000-06-15; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $15.00
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets ImageHomicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
by David Simon
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2006-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.05
Price in other shops: $18.00
Death & the Supreme Court ImageDeath & the Supreme Court
by Barrett Prettyman
AVON BOOKS; Published: 0000; Paperback; Book
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide ImageA Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
by Samantha Power
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.73
Price in other shops: $17.95
Anarchy, State, And Utopia ImageAnarchy, State, And Utopia
by Robert Nozick
Basic Books; Published: 1974-09-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $25.00
Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s (Working Class in American History) ImageWorkers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s (Working Class in American History)
by Bruce Nelson
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1990-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $29.95
The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties ImageThe Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties
by Mark E. Neely
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1992-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops: $38.00
Naming Names ImageNaming Names
by Victor S. Navasky
Hill and Wang; Published: 2003-04-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.40
Price in other shops: $35.00
Similar Books and other products
The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America ImageThe Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America
by Paul E. Johnson, Sean Wilentz
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1995-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.09
Price in other shops: $16.95
Monkey Business: The True Story Of The Scopes Trial ImageMonkey Business: The True Story Of The Scopes Trial
by Marvin Olasky, John Perry
B&H Publishing Group; Published: 2005-05-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $24.99
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) ImageWhat Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
by Daniel Walker Howe
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-10-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.49
Price in other shops: $35.00
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (Oxford History of the United States) ImageFreedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (Oxford History of the United States)
by David M. Kennedy
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-04-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $24.95
Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 ImageMaking a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939
by Lizabeth Cohen
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2008-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.97
Price in other shops: $23.99
Inherit the Wind ImageInherit the Wind
Release date: 2001-12-11; DVD
Best price: $6.70
Price in other shops: $14.98
Inherit the Wind ImageInherit the Wind
by Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee
Ballantine Books; Published: 2007-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.83
Price in other shops: $9.95
The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) ImageThe Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)
by Jeffrey P. Moran
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2002-03-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.66
Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library Chronicles) ImageEvolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library Chronicles)
by Edward J. Larson
Modern Library; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.79
Price in other shops: $14.95
A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign ImageA Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
by Edward J. Larson
Free Press; Published: 2008-06-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops: $15.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories