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Chargement... Scopes Monkey Trial, The (Images of America)par Randy Moore
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Appartient à la sérieImages of America [Arcadia] (Tennessee)
Law.
Photography.
Science.
Nonfiction.
The 1925 case against high school coach and science teacher John Scopes, arrested for teaching evolution in defiance of a Tennessee state law, was America's original "Trial of the Century." The proceedings began as a publicity stunt but grew into a landmark event in the nation's history. The trial featured three-time presidential candidate and fundamentalist leader William Jennings Bryan, who argued on behalf of the prosecution, and famed agnostic attorney Clarence Darrow, who helped defend Scopes. Although the Scopes case produced no legal precedent, the trial has been analyzed by historians, praised and vilified by politicians and preachers, cited in countless legal, political, and theological skirmishes, and retold in plays, movies, museum exhibits, and television documentaries. Images of America: The Scopes Monkey Trial examines the events that captured the attention of the world and still have much to teach us today. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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I was not aware that Mencken had already left Dayton before the climactic interrogation of Bryan by Darrow. I knew it was hot, but did not know that that famous event was also outside the courtroom on a platform under the shade of the trees. The courtroom itself, was the largest in Tennessee, and pictures taken during the trial reveal just how large the crowd was. Scopes himself went on the study geology and worked in South America for an oil company. Ironically, the jury was barely in attendance during the trial, having been sent out repeatedly while the lawyers wrangled over procedural issues. The fine itself was never collected and the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution, remained on the books until 1967 when it was successfully challenged. It was followed in 1968 by Epperson v Arkansas when the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated an Arkansas law of similar ilk.
Bryan was a tragic figure. An immensely popular populist he was nominated to run for president on the Democratic ticket three times ,and had he not associated himself with the anti-science movement would have gone down in history as far less of a buffoon. Darrow himself had supported Bryan in his quest for the presidency. Dayton ruined what was left of their former friendship and Bryan died six day later following his usual gluttonous repast. (He was diabetic.)
In his defense, much of Bryan's antipathy toward evolutionary theory was its misuse by natural selection advocates who then made the leap to eugenics. The textbook that was being used in the school was filled with racist statements and its portrayal of evolution (there are pictures of the page in question in this book) was worse than simplistic. "The author, George William Hunter, not only asserted the biological difference of races, he insisted on the vital importance of what he called “the science of being well born”—eugenics. Like most progressives of the time, Hunter believed in “the improvement of man” via scientific methods. That meant promoting personal hygiene, proper diet, and reproductive control. A Civic Biology also has suggestions for what to do with “bad-gened” people, in a section called “The Remedy.”
A prophetic paragraph from Bryan's never delivered speech: Science is a magnificent material force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm-tossed human vessels. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed, but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the slip of its compass and thus endanger its cargo. (https://newrepublic.com/article/128144/dark-history-liberal-reform.)
If you are looking for a compact review of the events and characters of the trial, this one is perfect. ( )