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The Lingering Impact of the Scopes Trial on High School Biology Textbooks Downloaded From BISI5109_790-796 9/4/01 7:54 PM Page 790 Education The Lingering Impact of the Scopes Trial on High School Biology Textbooks Downloaded from http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/ RANDY MOORE he publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of In the 1920s, fundamentalists tried to translate their beliefs TSpecies by Means of Natural Selection in 1859 began a into political reform and thereby save the nation’s morality. scientific revolution that changed many people’s view of the After a successful crusade to outlaw liquor, fundamentalists world. Although Darwin’s ideas were controversial, in the set out to eliminate discussions of evolution in public schools. United States he had a powerful advocate: Harvard’s Asa Led by religious leaders such as William Bell Riley, J. Frank at Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum Comp Zoology, Harvard University on August 7, 2014 Gray, an evangelical Christian who was America’s leading Norris, and—most prominently—William Jennings Bryan, botanist and president of the American Association for the Ad- fundamentalists began a campaign that blamed Darwin’s vancement of Science (of which William Jennings Bryan— ideas for the decline of the nation’s morality. Fundamental- one of John Scopes’s prosecutors—was a member). Gray, ist preachers such as Billy Sunday (a former Chicago Cubs out- who helped arrange for the publication of Origin in the fielder) used theatrical services to link evolution with eu- United States, was the only American taken into Darwin’s con- genics, prostitution, and crime; Aimee Semple McPherson fidence before Origin was published (Larson 1989). Gray es- presided at ritual hangings of “monkey teachers”; other poused a progressive, God-driven evolution of life. Although preachers claimed that Darwin’s ideas promoted the four some people were disturbed by Darwin’s ideas, Gray’s rec- P’s: prostitution, perversion, pornography, and permissiveness onciliation of God and evolution eased many people’s con- (Gould 1983, Larson 1997, de Camp 1969). According to cerns about evolution (Scott 1994, Moore 1997). Gray’s First fundamentalists, antievolution laws represented a return to Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology (1857; later renamed prewar normalcy, just as creationism in the public schools rep- The Elements of Botany) was the leading botany textbook of resented a public validation of a populist lifestyle (Larson 1997, the late 19th century and the first high school textbook after Taylor and Condit 1988). the publication of Origin to include Darwin’s ideas about evo- In many places, fundamentalists tried to ban the teach- lution. ing of evolution in public schools by targeting teachers. Early in the 20th century the public’s concerns about evo- For example, Tennessee’s Butler Law—the law that John lution resurfaced, for by the end of World War I,religious at- Scopes was convicted of violating—made it a crime “to titudes in the United States had shifted. A perceived decline teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation in morality, along with a collective longing for the seeming of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that simplicity of prewar life, prompted many people to reexam- man has descended from a lower order of animals.” Al- ine and increasingly rely on their religious faith for comfort though the law didn’t mention textbooks, fundamentalists and stability. Religious fundamentalism, based on a literal in- knew that textbooks (along with teachers) were the dri- terpretation of the Bible, became increasingly popular. Peo- ving forces behind a curriculum. Consequently, funda- ple who endorsed biblical literalism got their name—funda- mentalists—from a series of 12 small pamphlets (containing 90 articles) entitled The Fundamentals that were written be- Randy Moore (e-mail: [email protected]) is editor of The American Bi- tween 1910 and 1915. These pamphlets, whose publication was ology Teacher and professor of biology at General College, University funded by Lyman and Milton Steward (the founders of the of Minnesota, 128 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Union Oil Company), proclaimed biblical literalism as the an- Moore’s book Evolution in the Courtroom: A Reference Guide will be tidote to “modernism.” Millions of the pamphlets were dis- published soon by ABC-CLIO Publishers. © 2001 American Institute tributed (Larson 1989, Clouse 1995). of Biological Sciences. 790 BioScience • September 2001 / Vol. 51 No. 9 BISI5109_790-796 9/4/01 7:54 PM Page 791 Education mentalists’ campaigns often targeted textbooks. For exam- been a convenient excuse; after all, Darwin’s ideas would not ple, on 24 March 1923, and with little fanfare, Oklahoma seem to be any more abstract than the Greek, Latin, ancient Governor John C. Walton (a progressive Democrat) signed history, philosophy, and other courses included in the classi- America’s first antievolution law; that law offered free text- cal curriculum popular during that time (Skoog 1979). The books to public schools whose teachers would not mention publication of sanitized textbooks at precisely the time when evolution (the law was repealed the following year, soon af- some legislatures had passed, and others were considering, ter Walton was impeached). The following year, the North antievolution laws was no coincidence (Grabiner and Miller Carolina Board of Education—with the governor’s sup- 1974). Downloaded from port—barred public schools from using biology textbooks In 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee,John Scopes was a coach and that presented an origin for humans that differed from the substitute science teacher at Rhea County High School. Stu- one described in the Bible (Larson 1989). Despite these dents in a biology class that he taught used a textbook enti- acts, it was the Scopes trial—43 years after Darwin’s death— tled A Civic Biology: Presented in Problems by George William that would have the largest impact on biology textbooks and, Hunter (Hunter 1914). On 23 April, Scopes assigned the evo- http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/ therefore, on biology teaching. lution chapter, but didn’t teach his students about the topic because he missed school the next day because of illness (i.e., Biology textbooks before the Scopes trial Scopes was not even in school on the day listed on the in- In the early 1900s, biology textbooks were characterized by dictment that led to his trial; he merely assigned the offend- a diverse coverage of evolution. A few textbooks did not ing pages as part of a review for an exam; Larson 1997). mention the word evolution (e.g., Hunter’s Elements of Biol- Hunter made clear his view that evolution was a reality; he ogy, published in 1907; Peabody and Hunt’s Elementary Bi- used the word evolution, and credited the theory of evolution ology, published in 1913), whereas others devoted entire to Darwin. The textbook by Hunter, a former biology teacher, chapters to the subject. In most textbooks, however, evolution was the state-approved text in Tennessee high schools (Day- was featured prominently—so much so that William Jennings ton schools had used the book since 1919). Hunter’s book— at Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum Comp Zoology, Harvard University on August 7, 2014 Bryan complained that he could not find “any text book on oriented toward public health rather than theoretical biol- biology which does not begin with monkeys” (Numbers ogy—was also blatantly racist; in its discussion of five races 1992). Indeed, one textbook, The Elementary Principles of of humans, Hunter concluded that “the Caucasians repre- General Biology (Abbott 1914), dedicated more than 8,000 sented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and Amer- words to topics related to evolution. Some authors presented ica” were “the highest type of all.”Hunter’s book was a best- evolution with extraordinary assurance. For example, George seller, despite the fact that it included sections entitled “The Atkinson’s Botony for High School stated in 1912 that evolu- Doctrine of Evolution,” “Evolution of Man,” and “Charles tion “has been accepted,”and three years later a zoology text- Darwin and Natural Selection.” Other biology textbooks book by Vernon Kellogg and Rennie Doane noted that “or- popular at the time of Scopes’ trial (e.g., Moon’s Biology for ganic evolution is a fact, demonstrated and accepted”(Larson Beginners, published in 1921) also included chapters about 1989). Similarly, H. H. Newman wrote in Outlines of General evolution, although several of these books depicted evolution Zoology (Newman 1924), “There is no rival hypothesis to as a progressive process by which organisms became “more evolution, except the out-worn and completely refuted one perfect”organisms. Moon’s Biology for Beginners (1921) even of special creation, now retained only by the ignorant, dog- identified evolution as a fundamental and unifying concept matic, and the prejudiced.”Newman would learn that many of biology, noting that “both man and the apes are descended people—some biologists included—disagreed. from a common ancestor from which both lines have devel- How can we explain this diversity of books? Before Scopes’ oped.”Similarly, Linville’s The Biology of Man and Other Or- trial, some authors considered the topic of evolution to be too ganisms (1923) claimed that “so generally is the validity of the difficult for high school students. For example, authors J. E. theory admitted that it is often called the law of evolution,” Peabody and A. E. Hunt, who excluded evolution from many and Trafton’s Biology of Home and Community (1923) argued of their textbooks (e.g., Biology and Human Welfare, published that “the theory of evolution ... is universally accepted by in 1924), argued that evolution was better suited for cover- scientists as fact, and we rarely hear any arguments about its age in advanced rather than introductory courses.
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