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The early 1920s found social patterns in chaos. Traditionalists, the older Victorians, worried that everything valuable was ending. Younger modernists no longer asked whether society would approve of their behavior, only whether their behavior met the approval of their intellect. Intellectual experimentation flourished. Americans danced to the sound of the Jazz Age, showed their contempt for alcoholic prohibition, debated abstract art and Freudian theories. In a response to the new social patterns set in motion by modernism, a wave of revivalism developed, becoming especially strong in the American South.
Who would dominate American culture--the modernists or the traditionalists? Journalists were looking for a showdown, and they found one in a Dayton, Tennessee courtroom in the summer of 1925....[CONTINUED]
Scopes Monkey Trial
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- Public Discussion (3)
They say history repeats itself, based upon where we are today in America I am inclined to agree with that assessment.
- 1 vote
#1 - Mon Apr 4, 2011 2:22 PM EDTYou know, I'm ashamed to say I'd never read the entire story of that trial, and instead only knew the cliff note version that in 1925 the Scopes trial was argued concerning evolution being taught in schools, and that William Jennings Bryan was one of the attorneys for the prosecution. The longer version linked here is quite enlightening and quite amusing. Some of the quotes, particularly the one that got Darrow cited for contempt of court, were pretty damned funny.
It's truly sad that we still find ourselves arguing over this issue 86 years later.
- 2 votes
#2 - Mon Apr 4, 2011 3:06 PM EDTI'm ashamed to say I'd never read the entire story of that trial
Me neither; however, I did see Inherit the Wind. ;)
- 1 vote
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