KEEPING THE FAITH God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation

The Scopes Monkey Trial was settled almost a hundred years ago, but if you think the issues it raised regarding what can be taught in public schools were settled, you're wrong. Brenda Wineapple's history of the trial, its antecedents, and its aftereffects--ably narrated by Gabra Zackman--ties the trial into continuing themes in American culture and politics. Science and religion are only the starting points, and Zackman keeps the story moving, even when filling in the biographies of the two famous antagonists, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. There's no suspense regarding the outcome of the trial, and neither Zackman nor Wineapple overemphasizes connections to our own times, but those connections are there to be made. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2024]