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Summer For The Gods Summary

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Edward J. Larson introduces the world to a very detailed account of the Scopes trial with a book called Summer for the Gods. Larson himself has a law degree, Ph.D. in history, and is a history and law professor at the University of Georgia making him more than qualified to elaborate on the accounts of this historical trial. Summer for the Gods describes the events leading up to the Scopes trial, trial itself, and the aftermath that takes place in 1925. This trial is based whether or not evolution should be taught in schools, a controversy that very much plagues the United States. The trial will put an infamous criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow and the famous fundamentalist religiosity politician William Jennings Bryan against each other in a …show more content…

Part one is everything leading up to the trial and sets the stage for the rejection of Darwinism and evolution theories by Protestants and fundamentalists. Larson characterizes the emerging conflict as “populist majoritarianism and traditional evangelical faith versus scientific secularism and modern concepts of individual liberty” (Larson,83). Larson uses his knowledge of history to touch on the fact that before the 1920s both science and Christianity had a cordial relationship. Fundamentalist Christians would stir up the issue of evolution in the 1920s leading to the antievolution crusade. Larson goes into further detail of the theory of evolution, Darwinism, the fundamentalist and Protestants, and the idea of poisoning children with evolution leaving a lot of social unrest. Larson uses all this history to set up the conflict between the famous politician William Jennings Bryan and the American Civil Liberties Union. Bryan is a leading antievolutionist and is involved in many of the antievolution laws during this time. The American Civil Liberties Union was originally founded to defend protestors during world war one then shifted focus to defending labor union

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