1. Why did Scopes return to the courtroom late on Wednesday afternoon? (170)
2. How did the New York Times characterize the court debate? (180)
3. What did Darrow tell H.L. Mencken about his cross-examination of Bryan? (190)
4. What was Darrow's view of immortality? (197)
5. What was Edwin Mims' view of Darrow as a champion of enlightenment and science? (207)
6. What was different about the case on appeal, with respect to both the public and the attorneys, according to one reporter? (217)
==
7. Whose grave did Chapman almost inadvertently desecrate? (197)
8. With what adjective does Chapman imagine his family's view of his return to Tennessee? (207)
9. What's the least one generation can do for the next, according to Malone, and what does the truth not need? (216-7)
10. What's the "redneck's" response to Chapman's statement that there does seem to be some evidence for evolution? (227)
11. What's TULIP? (237)
12. What was "the high point of the trial"? (247)
13. What impresses Chapman about "a cop"? (257)
14. Of what are drugs symptomatic, according to Chapman? (269)
... [add yours in comments below]
DQ
- Would the "cordiality among participants" likely be replicated in a modern-day Scopes trial?
- Have there been any "good" debates on science and religion in recent years?
- Jefferson's statute of religious freedom says "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever..." Are you surprised that "modernist Bryan" would ever have endorsed it? 172
- Did Darrow's cross-examination of Bryan succeed in the way Darrow thought it did?
- What's your view of immortality (compared with Darrow's)?
- Was there anything in Darrow's approach that should embarrass a humanist? (What was Edwin Mims' problem with it?)
- Does the truth need defenders?
- What's your view of Calvinism, and specifically the doctrine of predestination?
- Do you agree with Chapman's view of why many people abuse illicit drugs? [btw: Michael Pollan's new book How to Change Your Mind is very interesting on this topic.]
- Darrow's personal character has been impugned by critics, but what's your impression of him? (Consider, for instance, the Curtis anecdote below*...)
- add yours please
* "One night after dinner, zoologist W. C. Curtis adjourned with Darrow to the mansion porch, where they continued a conversation begun at the table about mortality. Curtis had been diagnosed with cancer and told he had no more than a year to live. He was living with 'the expectation of death,' he recalled..."====
"'Do you need any money?'' he asked W. C. Curtis, after hearing the news that the zoologist's son had contracted polio... Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned
* "In our talk around the table after dinner that first night at Dayton, I must have said something that interested Mr. Darrow for as we left the table, he and I continued the conversation and sitting down alone on the veranda of The Mansion continued our talk until almost midnight. When we parted he remarked, 'There aren't many who think about these things as you and I do. It's too bad we can't see each other often.'" Winterton C. Curtis in D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial, ed. by Jerry R. Tompkins [excerpt here]
"As to science, [WJB's] mind was an utter blank. He was willing to believe with Genesis that the earth was less than six thousand years old.
Mr. Bryan did not know that the monuments of Egypt... ran back more than seven thousand years... neither did he know of the millions of ages when the earth sped in its path around the sun before it was fitted for any life, animal or vegetable. About all of this his mind was void... he was frightened out of his wits lest, after all, the illusions of his life might be only dreams.
On the other hand, I had been reared by my father on books of science. Huxley's books had been household guests with us for years, and we had all of Darwin's as fast as they were published... For a lawyer, I was a fairly grounded scientist... All in all, that was a summer for the gods... fundamentalism, which was the State religion of Tennessee...
Tennessee cannot much longer be led by the ignorant country preachers, the Holy Rollers, and the other weiurd sects that flourish... I prophesy tnat it will be only a few years before the senseless statute will be wiped from her books." The Story of My Life by Clarence Darrow==
“If you believe in evolution,” the science teacher told my son when he had asked about the relationship between gorillas and humans. After writing this book, I am no longer so surprised at her answer, not at the ability of antievolutionists to influence what our children are being taught in their science classes..." In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement
==
More for the Scopes/Evo-bibliography:
- In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement by Michael Lienesch
- American Genesis: The Evolution Controversies from Scopes to Creation Science
- The Monkeyville Case: The Famous Trials Series
Long Now Retweeted
Atl quiz questions Jul 11
ReplyDeleteSG 7-8
1.What did Bryan hand Darrow on Wednesday afternoon as a memento of the case? (175).
2.What was Darrow’s compromise that allowed the introduction of some evidence into the record? (185).
3.Why did Darrow say that this case would be remembered? (193).
4.According to a correspondent, how would thousands imagine that Bryan’s spirit would be whisk into heaven? (205).
5.Hays asserted that the theory of our constitution is that in the competition of ideas, truth will what? (215).
6.Historian Preston William Slosson’s account ended with an unanswered question. What was it? (223).
TM 17-23
1.List two of six questions Chapman wondered about the re-enactment? (202).
2.Hays stated that Bryan had argued that this was a ‘duel to the death,’ therefore, he argued that if this was so, then under simple rules of fairness the defense should be allowed to what? (212).
3.According to the editor of the local paper, Dayton is known as what capital of America? (222).
4.In Perugia, Chapman was intimate with a young woman from Australia who was unique in what way? (232).
5.According to Joe Wilkie, what do most kids in Dayton want to do when they leave high school? (242).
6.What terrible error did Bryan make in wanting to please his fundamentalist supporters and not wanting to appear entirely idiotic to more educated people? (252).
7.What was Dave unaware of regarding Rocky’s offer of ‘take the P.D. and I’ll overlook the domestic violence.’? (262).
8.According to Chapman, any good liar will tell you, the way to make a lie believable is to what? (272).
DQ
1.Why does Larson consider the Scope’s trial, the Trial of the Century? Is it really? Why or why not? What other famous trials occurred in the twentieth century that impacted the social and political fabric of the country?
2.According to the second creation story in Genesis, Adam was first and then Eve. After the ‘Original sin,’ as punishment, Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel. Then Cain slew Abel. That would leave only three people on the Earth, so where did Cain get his wife?
SG 7-8
ReplyDelete1. Why did Dudley Malone state, "The defense appeals from the Fundamentalist Bryan of today to the Modernist Bryan of yesterday? (172)
2. When it appeared the case was lost for the defense, Clarence Darrow had an ace up his sleeve. What was it? (182)
3. What were Scopes first words to the court? (192)
4. The national press saw little significance from the outcome of the trial other than what? (202)
5. In November of 1925, the Tennessee Academy of Science did what at its annual meeting? (212)
6. To whom did Vanderbilt humanist Edwin Mims compare journalist H. L. Mencken? (222)
TM 19-24
ReplyDelete1. What initial solution did Matthew come up with when he realized he missed the re-enactment? (199)
2. While in Perugia Italy, Matthew used what mode of transportation after walking the hills became exhausting? (209)
3. What reason did Joe Wilke give Matthew for the rise of teenage suicide in the area? (219)
4. What happened after Darrow lost his temper and said to Bryan, "I am examing you on your fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes"? (229)
5. When Rocky pulled over to question three black teenage girls, what did Matthew say was not apparent? (239)
6. How did Matthew describe his analyst Marie Singer? (249)
1.221 2.231 3.243 4.254 5.265 6.276
DeleteDQ
ReplyDelete1. What effect did Bryan's death have on the perception of the trial?
2. Was it wise for the ACLU to want to replace Darrow in the appeal?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete