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 Pulitzer Prize-winning author and academic Edward J. Larson is a work of historical non-fiction first published in 1997 that discusses the history of the Scopes trial, the events surrounding it, and the aftermath. The 2006 edition includes a new afterword by the author.

Larson begins by describing the geopolitical environment in the United States at the time of the 1925 Scopes trial. Evolutionary theories had been introduced for some time before the Scopes trial, beginning with the work of the Chevalier de Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Many Christian scientists at the time were open to ways of accommodating both science and religion. However, with the advent of Darwin’s theory of evolution and his concept of natural selection, the Piltdown man and other fossil discoveries, and increased enrollment in public secondary education, more families were exposed to Darwinian concepts. This development, in addition to the rise in religious fundamentalism and the association of natural selection as a justification of laissez-faire doctrines contributed to the rise of the antievolution movement. The author describes the role of

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