SIX DAYS OR FOREVER?: Tennessee vs. John Thomas Spes

by Ray Ginger ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 1958

A broad based consideration of the famous trial of the twenties which ""like so much evil... began with a sincere effort to do good"" and with Tennessee legislator Butler's act forbidding the teaching of evolution in the schools. Shaped by many forces, the drive for segregation which led to intolerance in other areas, the traditionalism in religion which was ""shored up by the regions's ubiquitous ancestor worship"", this is as concerned with the social, intellectual and religious climate of the South as the trial itself-which was only a symptom. Scopes, too plays a minimal part, a rather negligible young man who was talked into being used as a test case by the American Civil Liberties Union (""a drugstore discussion that got past control""). But the trial which had its dramatic recreation recently- Inh the Wind is still and is here an exciting display of two personalities; William Jennings Bryan, its evangelical high priest, whose emotional rodomontade was battered and shattered by the brilliant ""agnostic counsel for the defense""- Clarence Darrow, so that even though the case was lost- it was a ""victorious defeat"" for Darrow... A sharp and thoughtful demonstration of both the principles engaged in a conflict between belief- and inquiry-this will attract a liberal-intellectual audience now and it will also be an important book for permanent reference.

Pub Date: May 7, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Beacon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION