Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not What I Was Expecting
Comment: I was looking for a book to educate me on the Scope's Monkey Trial but I didn't want to have to read a lot of books to understand the subject. I read all the UK and US Amazon reviews and was surprised how few books were given good reviews by the public. Despite reading all the reviews, I found this book was nothing like what I was expecting. The author gives a thorough introduction to the subject such that when he finally reaches the trial; you have a thorough understanding of what is happening and why. What I found strange was that the author treats the trial as a nonentity and consequently skips through it in a very superficial way; when you read the book you understand why. The text is laboriously detailed in places which I found made it difficult to hold my concentration. The book is very educational , very enjoyable to read despite the immense detail in places. To be completely fair to the book, it is not really about the Scope's Monkey Trial; it is about the American culture clash between the religious fundamentalists and the liberal educational establishment. For non-Americans it is an introduction to another facet to the complex religious bigotry which is rife in America to this day. When America was an English/British colony, they took guidance from the mother country. When they separated , they seem to have retreated in their shell and are an insight into English religious bigotry in the middle ages. We all know how pig-headed the English religious establishment was in the middle ages; this book paints these American fundamentalists as identical. Despite the attempts to play down the importance of religious fundamentalist anti-evolution beliefs in America; it is clear that it still accounts for about 40% of the population. It is astonishing to realise that America parades itself around the world condemning religious fundamentalism and yet is unable to control or solve the problem within its own borders. The book makes no attempt to cover the subject of Darwin's Origin of the Species; although I don't think you have to read it to understand this book. I would strongly recommend this book to non-Americans as an insight into the character of the American religious fundamentalists (in every other country; these people are called fanatics ) but also as an aid to understanding the American character in general.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A saddening account of how our society is controlled
Comment: This book is a good account of a historical event but, more importantly, provides some insights into the very essence of the strongest force that shape the American society: religious fundamentalism. Quite a few decades have passed since Scope yet the forces of religious ignorance are as intact as, if not stronger than, such times. The advances in science and technology have only created a backlash of religious-dominated fear about the crumbling nature of the religious teaching - Scopes could well happen again at any time in our present.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book-Well Written-Very Intelligent
Comment: This is a short review. This is an excellent book. It is smart and entertaining. It is a critical look at the importance of this event in the history of the United States. Wonderful Job Professor!!!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: No more monkeying with history
Comment: It's one of the defining scenes of our century. The young science teacher, John Scopes, is chased from his class by a rabid bunch of anti-evolutionists. He's thrown in jail and a show trial is set up to punish him. Then Clarence Darrow arrives ... the white knight for science and rationalism. In a brilliant oration he destroys the older fundamentalist, William Jennings Bryan, exposing him as a fool and winning the case, making the world free for evolution. One small problem. The truth is nothing like that happy story. What you're thinking of is the plot of Inheirit the Wind, a second-rate movie that used the Scopes trial to dramatize the McCarthy hearings. Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelley weren't in Dayton for the trial, and what really happened was far from black and white. But in the hands of Edward Larson, it's also far more interesting. Larson's book, Summer for the Gods is a brialliantly reasoned look at what led to the trial, the trial itself, and its continuing impact on society. (Okay, on American society ... but it's still interesting.) Larson manages a tremendously difficult task: he manages to be unbiased and dispassionate without becoming dull. And he walks the line masterfully. There were times when I couldn't honestly say whose "side" Larson was on ... which is kind of the point. I read a lot of history, and it's very seldom I come across something that's so even-handed. Which would be a triumph in itself, even if it weren't so darn readable. For the rest of the review, visit my web page at exn.net/printedmatter
Customer Rating:
Summary: No more monkeying with history
Comment: It's one of the defining scenes of our century. The young science teacher, John Scopes, is chased from his class by a rabid bunch of anti-evolutionists. He's thrown in jail and a show trial is set up to punish him. Then Clarence Darrow arrives ... the white knight for science and rationalism. In a brilliant oration he destroys the older fundamentalist, William Jennings Bryan, exposing him as a fool and winning the case, making the world free for evolution. One small problem. The truth is nothing like that happy story. What you're thinking of is the plot of Inheirit the Wind, a second-rate movie that used the Scopes trial to dramatize the McCarthy hearings. Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelley weren't in Dayton for the trial, and what really happened was far from black and white. But in the hands of Edward Larson, it's also far more interesting. Larson's book, Summer for the Gods is a brialliantly reasoned look at what led to the trial, the trial itself, and its continuing impact on society. (Okay, on American society ... but it's still interesting.) Larson manages a tremendously difficult task: he manages to be unbiased and dispassionate without becoming dull. And he walks the line masterfully. There were times when I couldn't honestly say whose "side" Larson was on ... which is kind of the point. I read a lot of history, and it's very seldom I come across something that's so even-handed. Which would be a triumph in itself, even if it weren't so darn readable. For the rest of the review, visit my web page at exn.net/printedmatter
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