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The Great Monkey Trial
The true story of a court battle that began on a hot July day in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. Everyone gathered upon the small town to watch the spectacle of John Scopes being tried for the offense of teaching evolution to his high school biology class.
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About the author
L. Sprague de Camp
759 books310 followersLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 3, 2025
I found this book informative and pertinent to today. We have evolved from apes, but the far right "Christian" fundamentalists have not evolved since this trial which was held in 1925. They still cherish ignorant and hypocritical views. DeCamp’s writing is colorful and entertaining, but I got bogged down in what I considered to be extraneous details.
October 24, 2024
THE FULLEST ACCOUNT OF THE SCOPES EVOLUTION TRIAL
Lyon Sprague de Camp (1907-2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and biography. He wrote in the introductory section of this 1968 book, "In this book, I have tried to tell the story of the Scopes evolution trial of 1925, at Dayton, Tennessee, as truthfully as possible... I have not invented any speeches or incidents. Every word, gesture, or other deed attributed to the actors in this drama is based upon evidence: newspaper stories and magazine articles of the time of the trial, biographies and memoirs reminiscing about the trial, or interviews and correspondence with survivors of the trial. It does not follow that everything in my tale is absolutely correct... The published accounts of the trial contain many inconsistences, contradictions, exaggerations, and some outright hoaxes. The memories of the survivors ... differ in many details. Although I have tried to resolve these disagreements as far as possible... many points remain doubtful."
He notes that George Washington Rappleyea---one of the primary instigators of the trial---"was an outspoken evolutionist... he believed that all the forms of life that exist on earth today were descended from other, different forms... He believed that man had a similar pedigree---that men were descended from animals resembling the monkeys and apes of today... and so on back." (Pg. 6)
De Camp says of William Jennings Bryan, "the gods had endowed Bryan with a beautiful set of emotions and as noble an assortment of motives as mortals could ask for. But alas! they forgot to give him thinking power to match. On a cold page of type... his arguments seem puerile or downright idiotic... In any question of scientific fact, he was wholly at sea; but he... was either too lazy-minded or too self-conceited to try to learn." (Pg. 37)
He quotes John Thomas Scopes: "`I don't know if I'm a Christian,' he replied... `I do believe in the ethical teachings of Christ, and I believe there is a God. I do not think I have been contaminated or ruined by studying about evolution.' (Later, when some papers took this as meaning that Scopes was an agnostic, he vigorously denied that he had meant any such thing.)" (Pg. 91)
Of H.L. Mencken, he observes, "His mocking diatribes are still hilarious to read. On the other hand, he labored on so many targets that it is hard to take him seriously. One feels that no one so humorous would really hate so many things and people. Furthermore, there was a touch of the bully, the sadist, in Mencken. He could be appallingly rude and insulting... to people who had done nothing to earn such a fate, save that they stood outside the tiny circle of his `intelligent minority.'" (Pg. 144-145) Later, he adds, "Soon Mencken was the most disliked outsider in Dayton---far more hated than Darrow." (Pg. 274)
He quotes the pertinent part of one of Clarence Darrow's famous speech: "If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private school... If you can do one, you can do the other. Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding... After a while, your honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed, until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century, with bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dare to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind." (Pg. 257-258) He also quotes Darrow's request, "I hope the reporters got the amens in the record" (Pg. 326), and his request that the "READ YOUR BIBLE" sign be removed from the courtroom (pg. 379).
Of Bryan's willingness to take the stand and be cross-examined by Darrow, de Camp suggests, "It was a challenge he could not refuse without enormous loss of face. Moreover, for the sake of the anti-evolutionary crusade, Bryan badly needed a smashing forensic victory over Darrow... And perhaps... he thought that God would not let him get the worst of it." (Pg. 382)
And of course, he includes much of the famous interaction between Darrow and Bryan: D: "when you read that ... the whale swallowed Jonah... how do you literally interpret that?" B: "I read that a big fish swallowed Jonah---it does not say whale." D: "Mr. Bryan, doesn't the New Testament say whale?" B: "I am not sure... I remember in my own mind what I read about it." (Pg. 384) D: "When was that Flood?" B: "I never made a calculation..." D: "What do you think?" B: "I do not think about the things I don't think about." B: "Do you think about things that you DO think about?" B: "Well, sometimes." De Camp observes, "The spectators laughed; even Judge Raulston chuckled. As the inquisition ground on, their sympathies swung little by little away from Bryan. His partisans' loyalty was dampened by his repeated admissions of ignorance on subjects on which he had pontificated in an utterly dogmatic manner." (Pg. 390)
D: "You never in all your life made any attempt to find out about the other peoples of the earth---how old their civilizations are, how long they had existed on the earth, have you?" B: "No, sir; I have been so well satisfied with the Christian religion that I have spent no time trying to find arguments against it." (Pg. 399)
Perhaps surprisingly [for persons only familiar with the book Inherit the Wind or movie Inherit the Wind], de Camp records: D: "Do you think the earth was made in six days?" B: Not six days of twenty-four hours." D: "Doesn't it say so?" B: "No, sir." De Camp comments, "The crowd sat in stunned silence. The Peerless Leader had admitted, in effect, that the Creation story of Genesis could not be taken literally. The whole purpose of the Butler Act had been to enshrine the literal reading of Genesis by forbidding the teaching of aught to the contrary. And here was the White Knight of Fundamentalism confessing that he did not go all the way with the literal interpretation!" (Pg. 403) D: "Do you think the sun was made on the fourth day?" B: "Yes." D: "And they had evening and morning without the sun?" B: "I am simply saying it is a period." D: "They had evening and morning for four periods without the sun, do you think?" B: "I believe in Creation as there told and, if I am not able to explain it, I will accept it..." (Pg. 407)
D: "And you believe that is the reason that God made the serpent to go on his belly after he tempted Eve? ... Have you any idea how the snake went before that time?" B: "No, sir." D: "Do you know whether he walked on his tail or not?" B: "No, sir. I have no way to know." De Camp says, "The picture of a serpent bouncing along on its tail like an animated pogo stick was too much even for the godly." (Pg. 409)
He concludes, "What, then, is history's verdict on the achievement of Darrow and his colleagues at Dayton? Although the defense ... failed to have the Butler Act declared unconstitutional, it accomplished two other tasks... One was to hold the law up to such ridicule, and so to expose the ignorance of one of its chief advocates, that politicians would be chary of supporting monkey laws elsewhere. The other aim was to get Americans sufficiently interested in evolution to learn something about it, in the hope that they would realize that the evidence for evolution is just as convincing as the evidence for the roundness of the earth." (Pg. 492)
For those interested in this subject, you might also read the actual court transcript ['The World's Most Famous Court Trial: Tennessee Evolution Case'], Ray Ginger's 'Six Days or Forever?,' or the most recent book, 'Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion.'
Lyon Sprague de Camp (1907-2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and biography. He wrote in the introductory section of this 1968 book, "In this book, I have tried to tell the story of the Scopes evolution trial of 1925, at Dayton, Tennessee, as truthfully as possible... I have not invented any speeches or incidents. Every word, gesture, or other deed attributed to the actors in this drama is based upon evidence: newspaper stories and magazine articles of the time of the trial, biographies and memoirs reminiscing about the trial, or interviews and correspondence with survivors of the trial. It does not follow that everything in my tale is absolutely correct... The published accounts of the trial contain many inconsistences, contradictions, exaggerations, and some outright hoaxes. The memories of the survivors ... differ in many details. Although I have tried to resolve these disagreements as far as possible... many points remain doubtful."
He notes that George Washington Rappleyea---one of the primary instigators of the trial---"was an outspoken evolutionist... he believed that all the forms of life that exist on earth today were descended from other, different forms... He believed that man had a similar pedigree---that men were descended from animals resembling the monkeys and apes of today... and so on back." (Pg. 6)
De Camp says of William Jennings Bryan, "the gods had endowed Bryan with a beautiful set of emotions and as noble an assortment of motives as mortals could ask for. But alas! they forgot to give him thinking power to match. On a cold page of type... his arguments seem puerile or downright idiotic... In any question of scientific fact, he was wholly at sea; but he... was either too lazy-minded or too self-conceited to try to learn." (Pg. 37)
He quotes John Thomas Scopes: "`I don't know if I'm a Christian,' he replied... `I do believe in the ethical teachings of Christ, and I believe there is a God. I do not think I have been contaminated or ruined by studying about evolution.' (Later, when some papers took this as meaning that Scopes was an agnostic, he vigorously denied that he had meant any such thing.)" (Pg. 91)
Of H.L. Mencken, he observes, "His mocking diatribes are still hilarious to read. On the other hand, he labored on so many targets that it is hard to take him seriously. One feels that no one so humorous would really hate so many things and people. Furthermore, there was a touch of the bully, the sadist, in Mencken. He could be appallingly rude and insulting... to people who had done nothing to earn such a fate, save that they stood outside the tiny circle of his `intelligent minority.'" (Pg. 144-145) Later, he adds, "Soon Mencken was the most disliked outsider in Dayton---far more hated than Darrow." (Pg. 274)
He quotes the pertinent part of one of Clarence Darrow's famous speech: "If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private school... If you can do one, you can do the other. Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding... After a while, your honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed, until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century, with bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dare to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind." (Pg. 257-258) He also quotes Darrow's request, "I hope the reporters got the amens in the record" (Pg. 326), and his request that the "READ YOUR BIBLE" sign be removed from the courtroom (pg. 379).
Of Bryan's willingness to take the stand and be cross-examined by Darrow, de Camp suggests, "It was a challenge he could not refuse without enormous loss of face. Moreover, for the sake of the anti-evolutionary crusade, Bryan badly needed a smashing forensic victory over Darrow... And perhaps... he thought that God would not let him get the worst of it." (Pg. 382)
And of course, he includes much of the famous interaction between Darrow and Bryan: D: "when you read that ... the whale swallowed Jonah... how do you literally interpret that?" B: "I read that a big fish swallowed Jonah---it does not say whale." D: "Mr. Bryan, doesn't the New Testament say whale?" B: "I am not sure... I remember in my own mind what I read about it." (Pg. 384) D: "When was that Flood?" B: "I never made a calculation..." D: "What do you think?" B: "I do not think about the things I don't think about." B: "Do you think about things that you DO think about?" B: "Well, sometimes." De Camp observes, "The spectators laughed; even Judge Raulston chuckled. As the inquisition ground on, their sympathies swung little by little away from Bryan. His partisans' loyalty was dampened by his repeated admissions of ignorance on subjects on which he had pontificated in an utterly dogmatic manner." (Pg. 390)
D: "You never in all your life made any attempt to find out about the other peoples of the earth---how old their civilizations are, how long they had existed on the earth, have you?" B: "No, sir; I have been so well satisfied with the Christian religion that I have spent no time trying to find arguments against it." (Pg. 399)
Perhaps surprisingly [for persons only familiar with the book Inherit the Wind or movie Inherit the Wind], de Camp records: D: "Do you think the earth was made in six days?" B: Not six days of twenty-four hours." D: "Doesn't it say so?" B: "No, sir." De Camp comments, "The crowd sat in stunned silence. The Peerless Leader had admitted, in effect, that the Creation story of Genesis could not be taken literally. The whole purpose of the Butler Act had been to enshrine the literal reading of Genesis by forbidding the teaching of aught to the contrary. And here was the White Knight of Fundamentalism confessing that he did not go all the way with the literal interpretation!" (Pg. 403) D: "Do you think the sun was made on the fourth day?" B: "Yes." D: "And they had evening and morning without the sun?" B: "I am simply saying it is a period." D: "They had evening and morning for four periods without the sun, do you think?" B: "I believe in Creation as there told and, if I am not able to explain it, I will accept it..." (Pg. 407)
D: "And you believe that is the reason that God made the serpent to go on his belly after he tempted Eve? ... Have you any idea how the snake went before that time?" B: "No, sir." D: "Do you know whether he walked on his tail or not?" B: "No, sir. I have no way to know." De Camp says, "The picture of a serpent bouncing along on its tail like an animated pogo stick was too much even for the godly." (Pg. 409)
He concludes, "What, then, is history's verdict on the achievement of Darrow and his colleagues at Dayton? Although the defense ... failed to have the Butler Act declared unconstitutional, it accomplished two other tasks... One was to hold the law up to such ridicule, and so to expose the ignorance of one of its chief advocates, that politicians would be chary of supporting monkey laws elsewhere. The other aim was to get Americans sufficiently interested in evolution to learn something about it, in the hope that they would realize that the evidence for evolution is just as convincing as the evidence for the roundness of the earth." (Pg. 492)
For those interested in this subject, you might also read the actual court transcript ['The World's Most Famous Court Trial: Tennessee Evolution Case'], Ray Ginger's 'Six Days or Forever?,' or the most recent book, 'Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion.'
April 3, 2017
I waited three months for my local library to finish repairing this book, then swore I would finish it before the end of spring break. I did, and it was well worth it.
When mentioning to a friend that I had finally gotten my hands on the book, she laughed and said that she was glad to be friends with someone who had a favorite historical criminal case, and would spend their precious time off reading it. I'm sure many books on many court cases would be just as interesting, but this is my favorite court case and therefore I loved the book.
Sprague de Camp did a wonderful job of providing the reader with every detail they could possibly need to understand the times, the facts, and the personages involved in the case. Meticulous, and yet still maintained a level of excitement throughout as the circus nature of the trial is felt throughout.
Definitely enjoyable, and an excellent resource for anyone who wants to read up on the trial.
When mentioning to a friend that I had finally gotten my hands on the book, she laughed and said that she was glad to be friends with someone who had a favorite historical criminal case, and would spend their precious time off reading it. I'm sure many books on many court cases would be just as interesting, but this is my favorite court case and therefore I loved the book.
Sprague de Camp did a wonderful job of providing the reader with every detail they could possibly need to understand the times, the facts, and the personages involved in the case. Meticulous, and yet still maintained a level of excitement throughout as the circus nature of the trial is felt throughout.
Definitely enjoyable, and an excellent resource for anyone who wants to read up on the trial.
October 27, 2015
This book is a very readable, enjoyable overview of the "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee, that was the basis for the play and movie Inherit the Wind. While written by a person who was completely on the side of the defense in the trial, major prosecution figures like William Jennings Bryan are treated fairly and sympathetically.
Anybody interested in the Scopes trial or the ongoing evolution-vs.-creationism flap could gain from reading this book.
Anybody interested in the Scopes trial or the ongoing evolution-vs.-creationism flap could gain from reading this book.
October 2, 2025
AWESOME!!! The level of research invested in this book is spectacular.
I have been an actor in two different productions of ‘Inherit the Wind” and reading this book has opened my eyes much wider than the play ever did. Sprague de Camp’s research and exposition of what REALLY happened in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 is very detailed and revealing. The book was published in 1968 and according to the final chapter the religious right/Fundamentalists were still pushing this anti-evolution campaign then. I wonder if current teachers are still threatened if they teach evolution.
Sprague de Camp provides strong character descriptions of all the main players; strong descriptions of the town of Dayton and its population; and play by play description of the days of the trial and the appeals that followed.
Amazing!
I have been an actor in two different productions of ‘Inherit the Wind” and reading this book has opened my eyes much wider than the play ever did. Sprague de Camp’s research and exposition of what REALLY happened in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 is very detailed and revealing. The book was published in 1968 and according to the final chapter the religious right/Fundamentalists were still pushing this anti-evolution campaign then. I wonder if current teachers are still threatened if they teach evolution.
Sprague de Camp provides strong character descriptions of all the main players; strong descriptions of the town of Dayton and its population; and play by play description of the days of the trial and the appeals that followed.
Amazing!
May 13, 2021
This trial was necessary for educational evolution but it sure is moving slowly. It is difficult to fathom that there are still people that can deny the knowledge that has been discovered by science.
January 17, 2017
I believe I read this in Phoenix, during my summer of discontent. I was working in a car wash and hating every minute of it. But I still managed to read some good books. The debate between Clarence Darrow and Bryant Jennings is priceless. If I recall correctly, Jennings dies shortly after. The trial was too much for his heart.
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