Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion

The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents:
Doug Mishkin and Professor Edward J. Larson
on his Pulitzer Prize-winning book:

Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion

Marking the 100^th anniversary of the Scopes Trial this July

Monday, May 12, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. ET

Online via Zoom

In July 1925, the town of Dayton, Tennessee hosted one of the 20^th century’s most contentious and enduring courtroom dramas: The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes.  The trial pitted William Jennings Bryan and the anti-evolutionists against Clarence Darrow and the ACLU.  They fought over science, religion and their place in public education.  One hundred years later, that fight continues.

Professor Edward J. Larson’s Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion remains the single most authoritative account of this pivotal event whose combatants remain at odds in schools and courtrooms across the country.  The book received the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1998.  Frank Rich called it a “riveting book.”

Professor Larson is University Professor of History and holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University.  He is the author of sixteen books and over one hundred published articles.  His other books include the 2020 national bestseller Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership; To the Edges of the Earth: The Race for Three Poles (recipient of the 2018 National Outdoor Book Award); A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign and American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation.  His next book, due out in November 2025, is titled Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters.

Professor Larson regularly lectures at universities and other venues across the country and the world.  He is interviewed frequently for broadcast, print, cable, and internet media, including The Daily Show, The Today Show, Face the Nation, and multiple appearances on PBS, BBC, the History Channel, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR.  As part of his continued teaching about the Scopes trial, he is the featured speaker at Dayton, Tennessee’s “Scopes Trial Centennial Kickoff” events on March 21 and 22, 2025. 

Professor Larson is a graduate of Williams College, with an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin.

Professor Larson will be interviewed by Doug Mishkin, the teacher this Spring of “The Scopes Monkey Trial 100 Years Later: What Happened Then and Why Should We Care Now?” https://berkshireolli.org/T101ScopesMonkeyTrialSp25  and a frequent OLLI interviewer.

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Ticket information:

Admission is $10 for OLLI at BCC members, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State members, and $15 for the general public.

Admission is free for students, staff and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA, Simon's Rock, and Williams; youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.

Pre-registration is required. Register safely and securely online or call 413.236.2190 (M-F 9am-4pm) to register by phone with a credit card.