Thursday, July 21, 2005

Life of Bryan

Wittingshire's Jonathan Witt marks "Eighty Years of Scopes Monkey Business today with a short pop quiz that begins:

History tells us that two great lawyers faced off. On the one side was (A) a progressive and a pacifist, an educated man who rejected the idea of a young earth and worried about efforts to peddle racism and eugenics in the South. On the other side was (B) a master orator who defended some flagrantly racist ideas long since discredited by science.
Interesting stuff, and relevant to contemporary fights over changes in curricula; read the whole thing. I never knew that the book on evolution that William Jennings Bryan fought against was a racist, eugenics-based political screed.