William Jennings Bryan

out in the open schools. The American Civil Liberties Union needed to test the law, and a junior instructor named John Scopes, consented to help them. The alleged "trial of the century" united the well known government official and speaker, William Jennings Bryan, who headed the opposition to development campaign; and Clarence Darrow, who was viewed as the best criminal protection legal advisor of the time. The two men, plus their individual direction, clashed in the trail with the indictment in the

William Jennings Bryan was an advocate for the common man and set a precedent for the modern Democratic Party. He was not just a politician, Bryan was a radical reformer and wanted to change the way the government was ran. His speeches and political views were intriguing to his audience, and he presented many ideas that are now seen as way before his time. Margaret LeBeau stated in the novel, “A Godly Hero”, “He is certainly not of our politics, and I know none of our friends approve of him… but

The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee vs. Scopes but given the nickname “The Monkey Trial”, has been credited as starting the popular legal dispute between evolution and creationism in the court, and its impact in the 20’s was immeasurable. The interpretation of the case is just as popular, if not more, than the actual result of the case. The worldwide attention and media coverage the case received produced many opinions. Scholar’s opinions range from describing the case as

state’s law prohibiting the teaching of evolution. Scopes was arrested and the case immediately got national headlines causing William Jennings Bryan to announce his intention to join the prosecution. Then, the ACLU got involved and offered to defend Scopes. When Darrow heard about the case, he said he would defend the school teacher free of charge. To Darrow’s thinking, Bryan was the embodiment of all those aspects of rural America that Darrow had escaped so many years before. The reality of the situation

According to Gosnell, William Mckinley won a significant number of votes from lower and middle class members because of the amount of Republican propaganda his campaign used. Mckinley supported by upper class members had more capital to campaign and was able to reach a broader audience. Candidate Bryan was only able to reach a small portion of the masses (Gosnell, 131). William Bryan was not given any money by Democratic politicians or newspapers, he had to take the train and was known as a tireless

between the accepted beliefs of the time, and the new ones that challenged them. The standard belief was to accept what society and the Bible dictated. The difference in mentalities between the prosecutor, William Jennings Bryan and the defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, is seen when Bryan states that he himself "believe[s] everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is given there," and that "some of the Bible is given illustratively" [DOC C]. Another important

Through exploring Bryan, Larson exposes the majoritarian democratic ideology underlying the veneer of religion that has since characterized the trial Next Larson explores the role the ACLU played in the Scopes Trial. They saw the Scopes trial as a means to advance the rights of laborers and academic freedom using the First Amendment. Clarence Darrow, when he heard that William Jennings Bryan would be prosecuting the trial, eagerly joined the ACLU defense

the Scopes Trial was an extraordinary opportunity to put the small town of Dayton on the map (Scopes Trial, Mencken’s Trial Account, July 9, p. 1). Not only that, the trial brought Clarence Darrow, the nation’s greatest defense attorney, and William Jennings Bryan, the nation’s greatest political orator and three-time presidential candidate, into the trial. Due to these factors, New York Times called it “the most

Throughout United States history, Americans have always remain separated on certain issues. Edward Larson’s work Summer for the Gods exemplifies just how issues split the population. Larson uses the Scopes Trial of 1925 to demonstrate to the rivalry between modernists and traditionalists in the early 20th century. Charles Dawson discovered fossilized human bones known as the “Piltdown skull” and bridged a gap in history that seemed to confirm Darwin’s theory of evolution. "Darwin 's account of random

The documentary American Experience: Monkey Trials by PBS follows the famous trial of John Scopes. The trial was given the nickname, “The Monkey Trial” since it had to deal with Darwin’s: Theory of Evolution and whether it should be taught in schools. In 1925, John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in a public school room in Dayton, Tennessee. He violated the Butler Act. The Act “made it a crime for any public school teacher to quote ‘teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine