The Scopes Trial Report

This is a complete stenographic report of the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, printed under the title, The World’s Most Famous Court Trial. The Scopes Trial pitted the State of Tennessee against John Thomas Scopes, a substitute biology teacher accused of teaching evolution in a public school, an act prohibited by a recently enacted state law. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, former Democratic nominee for president, and the trial received international attention. Scopes was eventually found guilty and fined. The trial exacerbated the tension between two increasingly polarized positions in America—one that embraced evolution and another that insisted Genesis offered a literal account of the origins of life—and led to decades of legislative and legal battles in other states about the content of biology curricula.