The Hundred Years’ Trial: Law, Evolution, and the Long Shadow of Scopes v. Tennessee

By Alexander Gouzoules and Harold Gouzoules

A reappraisal of the 1925 prosecution of John Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school, and the trial’s enduring – and alarming – legacy

Time magazine called the trial a cross between a circus and a holy war. The proceedings were broadcasted live on radio, and dominated headlines not just across the US but also as far afield as Europe and China. One report presciently forecast that the ‘world’s most famous court trial’ would produce ‘an interest that will hold long after the individuals involved shall have passed away.’

In this book, legal scholar Alexander Gouzoules and evolutionary biologist Harold Gouzoules provide a fresh perspective on the 1925 ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’, revealing the perilous state of evolutionary theory at the time of the trial and its refinement over subsequent decades. Alongside this they trace the developing legal consensus on what should – and what shouldn’t – be taught in public schools. They go on to warn that by overturning these venerable legal precedents, a conservative-majority Supreme Court is now undermining the role of scientific evidence in informing public policy – with disastrous implications for justice and democracy itself.

Ranging from Darwin to intelligent design, the age of the Earth to eugenics, anti-abortion law to critical race theory, climate change to vaccine scepticism, THE HUNDRED YEARS’ TRIAL shows how the lessons to be learnt from the Scopes case apply to us all – and are more urgent than ever.