Edward J. Larson
Author of Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion
About the Author
Edward John Larson (born in 1953) is an American historian and legal scholar. He is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. He received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and show more America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. The book argues that Inherit the Wind (both the play and the movie) misrepresented the actual Scopes Trial. Larson was born in Mansfield, Ohio, and attended Mansfield public schools. He graduated from Williams College and received his law degree from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin--Madison. In 2004, Larson received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from The Ohio State University. He held the Fulbright Program's John Adams Chair in American Studies in 2000-2001. In 2015 his biography The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789, became listed on the New York Times bestseller list. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Edward J. Larson
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion (1997) 1,040 copies, 19 reviews
An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science (2011) 142 copies, 2 reviews
To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration (2018) 130 copies, 6 reviews
American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795 (2023) 58 copies, 1 review
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Larson, Edward J.
- Other names
- Larson, Edward John
- Birthdate
- 1953-09-21
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Mansfield, Ohio, USA
- Places of residence
- Athens, Georgia, USA
Malibu, California, USA
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - Education
- Williams College (AB|1974)
University of Wisconsin (MA|History|1976)
Harvard University (JD|1979)
University of Wisconsin (PhD|History|1984) - Occupations
- historian
university professor
legal scholar
law school professor - Organizations
- Pepperdine University
Members
Reviews
This series was fine. I think it was only the last lecture or few lectures that told me anything that I didn't already know, as I am already reasonably familiar with the subject. The lecturer did pronounce "larynx" oddly.
History of the Scopes trial, from its genesis as a collusive lawsuit designed to embarrass the old white South on behalf of the new white South to the fallout and cultural memory. We tend to think of people in the past as more credulous or single-dimensional than we are, but they weren't.
Good info, but some of the lecturer's odd pronunciations were distracting.
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Statistics
- Works
- 17
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 3,075
- Popularity
- #8,306
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 55
- ISBNs
- 107
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 2
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, convinced a substitute teacher named John Scopes to deliberately challenge Tennessee's law against teaching evolution so that the resulting trial would bring Dayton some publicity, boosting its economy.
-The famous part of the trial, Darrow v. Bryan, didn't have to happen. The American Civil Liberties Union wanted to defend Scopes mainly on freedom-of-speech grounds. But once the fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan joined the prosecution, Clarence Darrow--who was militantly anti-religion--immediately wanted to face down Bryan as a stand against Christianity. He came to Dayton and insinuated himself into the defense team and its strategy, despite that some members of the defense were much more interested in promoting civil liberties than in bashing religion. Essentially, Darrow probably would never have participated in the Scopes trial if Bryan hadn't.… (more)