The past feels astonishingly present in Debbie Levy's comprehensive and conversational A Dangerous Idea, a nonfiction work for young readers about the 1925 battle over evolution in the classroom which features a book ban, sensationalistic journalism, celebrities turned politicians, and sparring over curriculum.
John T. Scopes was fresh off his first year of teaching when "the leading citizens of the tiny burg of Dayton, Tennessee" summoned him to the drugstore for a chat. Scopes had unwittingly violated the Butler Act, a newly enacted law in defense of biblical literalism that prohibited teaching evolution. Scopes did so by employing Tennessee's standard biology textbook. Would Scopes, the Dayton citizens asked, "be willing to stand for a test case?" Dayton hoped for "a little publicity," but the subsequent trial turned into a full-fledged media circus when legendary charismatic soliloquists and lawyers William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow came to town. The two faced off in "a celebrity slugfest" in what became the first trial broadcast on radio. The famed orators had circled one another for decades, espousing opposing views on science and faith before arriving in that Dayton courtroom. There, Bryan and Darrow effectively "put creationism and biblical literalism on trial." The town flooded with visitors, and newspapers across the country published daily updates: "There was never before, and has never been, another day in court like it."
Sibert Honor winner Debbie Levy (This Promise of Change; We Shall Overcome), herself a lawyer, carefully traces the tandem meteoric rises of Bryan and Darrow and the evolutionary opposing views that led to their involvement in the Scopes "Monkey Trial." The final chapter brings the conflict over Darwinism into the modern era, and Levy's epilogue puts a finer point on the trial's uncanny parallels to the current climate of book challenges and scientific skepticism. The text is richly enhanced with archival photos while cinematic descriptions of trial scenes benefit from transcript excerpts and pithy newspaper quotes. Levy's conversational tone pokes particularly sharply at the trial's unorthodox courtroom procedure. "For five minutes, the judge posed as if reading the [decision]. And then he read it aloud, for real. Finally... the real trial could begin. After a lunch break, that is." Thorough backmatter includes a timeline, source notes, and bibliography.
A Dangerous Idea should hold appeal for readers in search of historical context around politically shrouded efforts to shelter students from information. Though when history repeats itself, we should all pay attention. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf
Shelf Talker: A thorough and conversational middle-grade book chronicles the battle between two charismatic speechmakers over the teaching of evolution in Tennessee classrooms during the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial."