One of the best books around on the Scopes Trial. ( )

As far as I can tell, this is the best work on Scopes Trial of 1925, even including Edward J. Larson's Pulitzer Prize winning book on the subject: Summer for the Gods. Larson attempts to put the trial into a more complete historical setting, while de Camp focusses on the trial, while sketching the tenor of the times and a bit of the immediate aftermath. In terms of pages, de Camp devotes 493 pages to the trial, and Larson 107. Although Larson reviews a number of books that dealt with the trial, he missed this one.

De Camp is quite up front about his point of view: he believes in evolution and he is no Fundamentalist. Nevertheless, he tries very hard to be fair to the principals in the trial. Darrow and Bryan come across as two sides to the same self-aggrandizing coin. The account includes long quotations from original source material, allowing the reader opportunities to reach their own conclusions. The disharmonies within the teams of lawyers are obvious, as are the competing agendas of the principals; these often conflicted with the actual trial. The lawyers could not agree on strategy and tried to argue a variety of points. In addition, the book is illustrated with contemporary editorial cartoons.

All together an excellent book. ( )