Dangerous Idea
The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools
- author
- Debbie Levy
- Narrator
- Noe Nishizawa
- Length
- 6 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury
- Catalogue #
- 21699
- Categories
- Science - General
- Reviews
- 0 star rating
In 1925, when a Tennessee statute outlawed the teaching of evolution in public schools, a science teacher volunteered to be arrested so the question could go to court. The result was a highly publicized circus of a legal battle, in which two lawyers, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, faced off in their defenses of two different books - the Christian Bible and Charles Darwin's groundbreaking On the Origin of Species - in a debate over creationism and Darwinism.
One hundred years after the trial, this debate over what should be taught in school and who should decide persists. Award-winning author Debbie Levy delves into the story of the trial and its striking parallels to our present.