The Scopes Trial

by Don Nardo

Examines the Scopes trial concerning the teaching of evolution in public schools.

96 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Don Nardo (born February 22, 1947) is an American historian, composer, and writer. With close to four hundred and fifty published books, he is one of the most prolific authors in the United States, and one of the country's foremost writers of historical works for children and teens.

Reviews

[Keifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Scopes Trial, written by Don Nardo, is based on the trial which happened in 1925. The trial occurred due to the substitute teacher, John Scopes inadvertently teaching evolution, which violated the Butler Act of Tennessee.

The book is a description of the Scopes Trial. John Scopes taught evolution when substituting in school and the namesake trial arguing his violation of the anti-evolution laws in place. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) financed a test case where Scopes volunteered to be tried for violating the act. Scopes was substituting for the regular bio teacher, and was charged on May 5, 1925. He was teaching evolution from George William Hunter’s biology textbook Civic Biology: Presented in Problems. The book described the theory of evolution, race, and eugenics. The biggest legal names in the nation at the time were brought into the trial. William Jennings Bryan was for the prosecution, and Clarence Darrow was for the defense. The trial was a ploy of publicity for the town of Dayton, TN, which succeeded. The judge, John T. Raulston, was accused of being biased towards the prosecution, frequently bashing Darrow. The court came to a guilty verdict: “We claim that the defendant is not guilty, but as the court has excluded any testimony, except as to the one issue as to whether he taught that man descended from a lower order of animals, and we cannot contradict that testimony, there is no logical thing to come except that the jury find a verdict that we may carry to the higher court, purely as a matter of proper procedure. We do not think it is fair to the court or counsel on the other side to waste a lot of time when we know this is the inevitable result and probably the best result for the case.” after eight days of trial, the jury only took nine minutes to come to a verdict. Scopes was found guilty on July 21, and was ordered to pay $100.

The author’s purpose is to describe the turbulence of the time period relating to the hot topic of evolution. The author describes the events in the book thoroughly play-by-play and illustrates the situation being described. An example of the style is found in the following quotes: “I believe in part of evolution, but I don't believe in the monkey business...all but instructed the grand jury to indict Scopes, despite the meager evidence against him and the widely reported stories questioning whether the willing defendant had ever taught evolution in the classroom".

I thought the book was ok. It was lots of filler, which is good in school foods, but in a book that could be shortened by a third, not so much. In spite of this, the story was interesting and had its peaks and valleys. The information that was between the filler was juicy, however, and highlights a still existing controversy over the teaching of evolution in schools.

[Derek]

To me, The Scopes Trial is a very interesting book. The Scopes Trial is based on a court session that was about the debate of weather people should study about the evolution of mankind or they rather study religion. John T. Scopes was accused of breaking a new state law in 1925. This law stated that it was forbidden to teach Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which stated that all living things, including humans, came from lower life-forms.

Charles Darwin was a science naturalist. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection. It was a big collection of scientific evidence supporting the theory of evolution. Whenever he released his book, many clergymen and scholars erupted a heated controversy. An Act prohibiting the teaching of Evolution Theory in all universities, Normals, and other public schools. This is the Butler Act that was mentioned many times to help the proceedings of the court. This books setting is in Dayton, Tennessee on Friday, July 10, 1925, when the Scopes Trial first started.

John Scopes taught his theory of evolution to schools in Dayton, Tennessee. The prosecuter of the trial was Ben and J. Gordon McKenzie did everything they could in their power to make things work. The theme of this book, what I think, is you can choose whatever you want to study, even if people disagree with you. You could choose to study the evolution of humans and/or you could choose to study a religion like Christianity, or Buddhism. The style this book is written in is narration and argument. The book a narration because The Scopes Trial is written in chronological order starting from the arrest of John T. Scopes to the end of the Scopes Trial. This book is also a argument because in the Scopes Trial, they argue why it is illegal to study evolution and why people may not study religion.

Overall, The Scopes Trial was a good book to read for me because what I like in my book whenever I read it is action and differences between two opposing things. What I think about the study of evolution is that everyone should know where they came from and how they were made. If people didn't want to know where they came from, then they didn't have to know. I just don't understand why people would have a whole court session on an act that banned the study of evolution. If I had to change something in this book, I would change the amount of detail that they give about the trial. There are facts and statements, but I would like more information about what actually happened at the court.

[Renaité Di Pietro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, fascinating read. The trial was much more interesting than I remember learning in school. I wish the asides has been situated differently so I didn't have to keep marking places to go back to, but they were worth reading.