Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century

Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century Review

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Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century Feature

The plight of John T. Scopes dominated headlines for weeks, but behind the scenes of the famous "Monkey Trial" were other dramas hidden from public view. Now a serendipitous discovery has opened a new window on the "Trial of the Century," enabling modern readers to comprehend more completely the tensions that gripped a Tennessee community--and the nation--in 1925.

Historian Marcel LaFollette discovered at the Smithsonian a cache of more than sixty never-before-published photographs taken at the Scopes trial. Her research on these photos sheds new light on the proceedings, as well as on the journalists and scientists who gathered for this epic confrontation between science and tradition.

LaFollette takes readers behind the scenes to witness the trial from the perspective of journalist-photographers Watson Davis and Frank Thone, who had come to cover the trial but became informal liaisons between defense attorneys and the scientific community. They observed visitors and events and even befriended John Scopes in the years following the trial. Their impressions offer new views of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan and reveal the role of fascinating characters like George Washington Rappleyea, the cocky promoter who saw the trial as a way to bring publicity, tourists, and new business to Dayton.

These photos--trial witnesses and visiting celebrities, an outdoor baptism service, defiant ministers assembled in front of a Dayton church--help ground the Scopes trial in southern religion and culture and relate it to a time and place on the cusp of change. The notes of Davis and Thone preserve keen observations of personalities and events, while letters between Scopes and the two reporters in the years after the trial help illuminate the character of an ordinary young man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.

LaFollette weaves an engaging story of friendship, newly minted coalitions between scientists and journalists, and acts of goodwill in the midst of turmoil. Her book enables us to understand better the passions that swept one small town and came to divide the nation.

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Those About Him Remained Silent: The Battle over W. E. B. Du Bois

Those About Him Remained Silent: The Battle over W. E. B. Du Bois Review

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Those About Him Remained Silent: The Battle over W. E. B. Du Bois Feature

On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois died in exile in Ghana at the age of 95, more than a half century after cofounding the NAACP. Five years after his death, residents of Great Barrington, the small Massachusetts town where Du Bois was born in 1868, proposed recognizing his legacy through the creation of a memorial park on the site of his childhood home. Supported by the local newspaper and prominent national figures including Harry Belafonte and Sydney Poitier, the effort to honor Du Bois set off an acrimonious debate that bitterly divided the town. Led by the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, opponents compared Du Bois to Hitler, vilifying him as an anti-American traitor for his communist sympathies, his critique of American race relations, and his pan-Africanist worldview.

In Those About Him Remained Silent, Amy Bass provides the first detailed account of the battle over Du Bois and his legacy, as well as a history of Du Bois's early life in Massachusetts. Bass locates the roots of the hostility to memorialize Du Bois in a cold war worldview that reduced complicated politics to a vehement hatred of both communism and, more broadly, anti-Americanism. The town's reaction was intensified, she argues, by the racism encoded within cold war patriotism.

Showing the potency of prevailing, often hidden, biases, Those About Him Remained Silent is an unexpected history of how racism, patriotism, and global politics played out in a New England community divided on how-or even if-to honor the memory of its greatest citizen.

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The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930-1960

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930-1960 Review

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The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930-1960 Feature

Founded by radicals in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union experienced several key changes in its formative years. Judy Kutulas traces the history of the ACLU between 1930 and 1960, as the organization shifted from the fringe to the liberal mainstream of American society.

In alternating chapters, Kutulas explores operations at the national level and among the group's local branches. To gain mainstream credibility, the radicals at ACLU headquarters became more professional, began using court challenges rather than direct action, and carefully chose their battles to focus on national security as much as on the protection of dissent. Meanwhile, the group's affiliates, separated from the institutionalization of the national office, maintained the idealism of defending the rights of all individuals, no matter how unpalatable their beliefs and activities.

The shifts at the national level made the ACLU more government-friendly and less radical, but also, Kutulas argues, more timid and weak. Civil liberties activists in ACLU branches around the country ultimately pushed the organization to return to its radical roots in the 1960s. In an afterword, Kutulas addresses how post-9/11 America poses the familiar challenge of balancing national security and individual rights that came to the forefront in the early decades of the ACLU.

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Punishment and the Death Penalty (Contemporary Issues)

Punishment and the Death Penalty (Contemporary Issues) Review

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Punishment and the Death Penalty (Contemporary Issues) Feature

This classic brings together influential thinkers to discuss two of the most controversial issues of our time.

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In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families

In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families Review

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In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families Feature

The press called Martin's actions a "crime spree." Terrified that his son would be sentenced to die, Martin's father Phillip committed suicide; ironically, the jury, moved by this desperate act, spared Martin's life. Phillip's story, like those of the other parents, siblings, children, and cousins chronicled here, vividly illustrates the precarious position occupied by capital offenders' families. Living in the shadow of death, they are crushed by trauma, grief, and helplessness. In this penetrating account of guilt and innocence, shame and triumph, devastating loss and ultimate redemption, their voices add a new dimension to the debate about capital punishment.

These narratives are woven together by restorative justice theory, which holds offenders accountable while searching for ways to mend the communities and lives torn apart by their crimes and integrating offenders' families into the process of promoting justice and healing. What emerges from myriad in-depth interviews with offenders' and victims' families, legal teams, and leaders in the abolition and restorative justice movements is a vision of justice rooted in the social fabric of communities, showing that forgiveness and recovery are possible even after terrible crimes. While holding victims' stories sacred, this eye-opening book bridges the pain of living in the shadow of death with the possibility of a reparative form of justice. Anyone working with victims, offenders, and their families - from lawyers and social workers to mediators and activists - will find it indispensable to their efforts.

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Capital Punishment (Historical Guides to Controversial Issues in America)

Capital Punishment (Historical Guides to Controversial Issues in America) Review

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Capital Punishment examines the debate around the death penalty, raising questions and attempting to provide an even-handed examination of this controversial practice. The authors combine analysis of important issues with excerpts from landmark legal decisions, important documents, survey results, and empirical data.

The first part of the book discusses the origins of the death penalty and traces its development from antiquity to contemporary times. Detailed statistical information about capital punishment is presented and discussed, and the death penalty is considered against a constitutional backdrop with various arguments—for and against—articulated. The second part of the book consists of three appendices. The first appendix presents an annotated list of important capital-punishment cases; the second supplies a more general chronological treatment of capital punishment; and the third provides a bibliographic essay directing readers to other relevant sources of interest. A thorough and insightful treatment, Capital Punishment provides both a summary of the current state of capital punishment and a discussion of areas of continuing controversy.

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The Natural Selection

The Natural Selection Review

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The Natural Selection Feature

In July of 1925, Sarah Kaufman is finally taking the holiday she deserves. Her court duties in the hands of a competent replacement, she looks forward to a month of relaxation with her cousin Lena, the newest and most progressive member of the English department at Tennessee's Edenville College. Knowing that the South would be even more humid than Toledo, Sarah packed only her lightest clothing. What she did not know, however, was that she also would need the investigative skills she had just barely acquired, the lover she had continuously resisted, and the emotional strength that she thought had been tested enough for one lifetime. Indeed, even before one of hottest summers on record has a chance to make her rethink her vacation plans, Sarah reluctantly agrees to help investigate the mysterious death of one of Lena's most esteemed and, as she discovers, enigmatic colleagues. With the dead professor's own cryptic, Darwinian message as a guide, Sarah travels the short distance to Dayton, Tennessee, where the internationally followed Scopes 'Monkey' trial is underway. There, along with the disquieting Mitchell Dobrinkski reporting on the event for the Blade, she meets the famous journalist H. L. Mencken, who provides her with information that could help unravel the mystery. But the case, and the challenges to Sarah's physical and psychological well-being, have only just begun. What follows is a harrowing and complex path of dead-ends, bigotry and brutality, a journey that shatters her own preconceptions, takes her to the depths of her own desire, and ultimately leads her back to the college where Darwin's controversial theory of evolution startlingly resurfaces in a manner she never could have predicted. Set against the backdrop of what was deemed the 'Trial of the Century,' this socially and politically relevant blend of fact and fiction includes actual courtroom excerpts and vividly portrays the Scopes trial's central figures: John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and especially H. L. Mencken.

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Crimes and Trials of the Century [Two Volumes] [2 volumes]

Crimes and Trials of the Century [Two Volumes] [2 volumes] Review

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Crimes and Trials of the Century [Two Volumes] [2 volumes] Feature

What do O. J. Simpson, the Lindbergh baby, and Gary Gilmore have in common? They were all the focus of famous crimes and/or trials in the United States. In this two-volume set, historical and contemporary cases that not only shocked the nation but that also became a part of the popular and legal culture of the United States are discussed in vivid, and sometimes shocking, detail. Each chapter focuses on a different crime or trial and explores the ways in which each became famous in its own time. The fascinating cast of characters, the outrageous crimes, the involvement of the media, the actions of the police, and the trials that often surprised combine to offer here one of the most comprehensive sets of books available on the subject of famous U.S. crimes and trials.

The public seems fascinated by crime. News and popular media sources provide a steady diet of stories, footage, and photographs about the misfortunes of others in order to satisfy this appetite. Murder, rape, terrorism, gang-related activities, and other violent crimes are staples. Various crime events are presented in the news every day, but most of what is covered is quickly forgotten. In contrast, some crimes left a lasting impression on the American psyche. Some examples include the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, and the September 11th attacks. These events, and other significant cases, are immediately or on reflection talked about as crimes of the century. They earn this title not only because they generate enormous publicity, but because of their impact on American culture: they help define historical eras, influence public opinion about crime, change legal process, and focus concern about important social issues. They seep into many other shared aspects of social life: public conversation, fiction and nonfiction, songs, poems, films, and folk tales.

This set focuses on the many crimes of the century of the last 100 years. In vivid detail, each crime is laid out, the investigation is discussed, the media reaction is described, the trial (if there was one) is narrated, the resolution is explored, and the significance of the case in terms of its social, political, popular, and legal relevance is examined. Illustrations and sidebars are scattered throughout to enliven the text; print and electronic resources for further reading and research are offered for those wishing to dig deeper. Cases include the Scopes Monkey trial, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, O.J. Simpson, Leopold and Loeb, Fatty Arbuckle, Al Capone, JonBenet Ramsey, the Lacy Peterson murder, Abu Ghraib, Columbine and more.

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The Moments Lost: A Midwest Pilgrim's Progress

The Moments Lost: A Midwest Pilgrim's Progress Review

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The Moments Lost: A Midwest Pilgrim's Progress Feature

Franklyn Shivs is a Wisconsin farm boy with a mind too vigorous, too full of desire, for a life on the farm. Leaving home as a young man, he heads south to turn-of-the-century Chicago, a city untamed and turbulent enough to challenge each of his dreams and talents. There he becomes a newspaper reporter, rising through the masthead and learning the back alleys, the tavern manners, the corruption and conflict that underlie the city's grandeur. Dispatched to Northern Michigan to cover the bloody copper mine strike of 1913, he falls in love with the strike's most militant leader, the estranged wife of one of the miners. Their affair forces him to choose between principle and passion, a decision likely to affect the outcome of the strike and the future of the labor movement. With careening, virtuosic prose, Bruce Olds brings to full-blooded life a watershed moment in American history through the experience of a distinctly American protagonist.    

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Bryan And Darrow At Dayton: The Record And Documents Of The Bible-Evolution Trial

Bryan And Darrow At Dayton: The Record And Documents Of The Bible-Evolution Trial Review

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This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

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