The Scopes Trial

By Arthur Blake

A trial over the right to teach evolution raised such issues as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, the right to teach, and the right to learn. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156294407X
• ISBN13: 9781562944070
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Millbrook Press
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.8" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 9 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 6

Customer Reviews

An excellent juvenile history about the Scopes "Monkey" Trial

The subtitle of Arthur Blake's look at the Scopes Trial sets up a specific perspective for this volume in the Spotlight on American History series. The 1925 trial of The State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes, on which I did my dissertation, is remembered for pitting Darwin's theory of evolution against the Bible's story of divine creation, but the book's subtitle focuses on the key issue as being "Defending the Right to Teach." Of course, since these books are going to end up in school and public libraries around the country, focusing on the general idea of academic freedom versus getting caught up in the continuing conflict between science and religion that is now manifesting itself in school board debates over the teaching of scientific creationism makes a lot of sense. The idea of these books is to highlight a vital moment in U.S. history, placing events against a backdrop of the people, places, and times that made them possible. Blake begins with the verdict in the Scopes trial, makes it clear that everybody knew Scopes was going to be convicted, and then goes back to how the ACLU wanted to test the constitutionality of the Butler Act in court. Blake ends the first chapter with Scopes agreeing to stand trial, pointing out that while the young teacher agreed that you could not teach biology without teaching evolution, he was not certain that he had actually taught evolution when he was substituting for the Dayton High School biology teacher. The fact Scopes never committed the crime for which he was convicted is only one of the attendant ironies of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. Blake makes a point of balancing the two sides throughout this book. The background of Scopes is followed by the history of the Butler Act. The next chapter introduces both defense attorney Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan joining the prosecution in Dayton. In relating the events of the trial Blake accurately covers its three stages in separate chapters: the first dealt with the motion to quash the indictment and the second with the admission of expert witnesses, both of which the prosecution won. This sets up the final stage, where Darrow put Bryan on the witness stand and cross-examined him on evolution and the Bible in one of the most famous scenes in trial history. Although Blake does not set up the trial stages explicitly, he does present the way it was structured, and hopefully young students and their teachers will pick up that the trial evolved from legal issues to the public ridicule of Bryan. The final two chapters look at both the aftermath of the trial, both in terms of what happened to the participants and the case, and the question of "Who Was Right?" Blake only touches on "Inherit the Wind," the fictionalized story of the trial that has served as the source for what most Americans know about the trial today, and in the final chapter provides a sidebar on the debate between those who believe in divine creation and those who accep