Book ID: CBB001213141

Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools (2013)

unapi

Shapiro, Adam R. (Author)


University of Chicago Press


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: 193 pp.; ill.
Language: English

In Trying Biology, Adam R. Shapiro convincingly dispels many conventional assumptions about the 1925 Scopes monkey trial. Most view it as an event driven primarily by a conflict between science and religion. Countering this, Shapiro shows the importance of timing: the Scopes trial occurred at a crucial moment in the history of biology textbook publishing, education reform in Tennessee, and progressive school reform across the country. He places the trial in this broad context---alongside American Protestant antievolution sentiment---and in doing so sheds new light on the trial and the historical relationship of science and religion in America. For the first time we see how religious objections to evolution became a prevailing concern to the American textbook industry even before the Scopes trial began. Shapiro explores both the development of biology textbooks leading up to the trial and the ways in which the textbook industry created new books and presented them as responses to the trial. Today, the controversy continues over textbook warning labels, making Shapiro's study---particularly as it plays out in one of America's most famous trials---an original contribution to a timely discussion.

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Reviewed By

Review William Vance Trollinger (2015) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 393-396). unapi

Review Aaron J. Sickel (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". Science Education (pp. 738-740). unapi

Review Larson, Edward J. (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". Journal of American History (p. 297). unapi

Review Mislin, David (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". History of Education Quarterly (p. 115). unapi

Review Miller, Rebecca B. (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (pp. 63-64). unapi

Review Lienesch, Michael (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 659-660). unapi

Review Ostrander, Rick (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". American Historical Review (pp. 543-544). unapi

Review Larson, Edward J. (2014) Review of "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools". Journal of American History (pp. 297-298). unapi

Essay Review Weldon, Stephen P. (2014) Monkey Business. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 115-118). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001213141/

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Authors & Contributors
Shapiro, Adam R.
Larson, Edward John
Laats, Adam
Kruse, Jerrid W.
Green, Lisa Anne
Wolffram, Heather
Concepts
Evolution
Science and law
Science and religion
Science education and teaching
Biology
Controversies and disputes
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
19th century
Places
United States
Germany
St. Petersburg (Russia)
Oklahoma (U.S.)
Tennessee (U.S.)
Russia
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