The question of teaching evolution in the public schools is a continuing and frequently heated political issue in America. From Tennessee's Scopes Trial in 1925 to recent battles that have erupted in Louisiana, Kansas, Ohio, and countless other localities, the critics and supporters of evolution have fought nonstop over the role of science and religion in American public life. In American Genesis, Jeffrey P. Moran explores the ways in which the evolution debate has reverberated beyond the confines of state legislatures and courthouses. Using extensive research in newspapers, periodicals, and archives, Moran shows that social forces such as gender, regionalism, and race have intersected with the debate over evolution in ways that shed light on modern American culture. He investigates, for instance, how antievolutionism deepened the cultural divisions between North and South--northerners embraced evolution as a sign of sectional enlightenment, while southerners defined themselves as the standard bearers of true Christianity. Evolution debates also exposed a deep gulf between conservative Black Christians and secular intellectuals such as W. E. B. DuBois. Moran also explores the ways in which the struggle has played out in the universities, on the internet, and even within the evangelical community. Throughout, he shows that evolution has served as a weapon, as an enforcer of identity, and as a polarizing force both within and without the churches. America has both the most advanced scientific infrastructure as well as the highest rate of church adherence among developed nations, and the issues raised in the evolution controversies touch the heart of our national identity. American Genesis makes an important contribution to our understanding of the impact of this contentious issue, revealing how its tendrils have stretched out to touch virtually every corner of our lives.

American Genesis: The Evolution Controversies from Scopes to Creation Science

History

Moran, Jeffrey P.

Americas

Oxford University Press

Scopes Trial covers the shocking case of whether to teach evolution in school and its impact on the moral fiber of the country and the educational system, examining the race and gender issues that shook out of the debate.

The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture (Palgrave (Firm)).)

Bedford/St.Martin's

America A Concise History 2e Volume 2 and Does the Frontier Experience Make: America Exceptional? and The Scopes Trial

Etulain, Richard W.

America A Concise History 2e Volume 2 and Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, &: the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s and Scopes Trial

Dumenil, Lynn

Henretta, James A.

Brody, David

Howard-Pitney, David

Scopes Trial & Confronting Southern Poverty in the Great Depression & Brown v. Board of Education

Coclanis, Peter A.

Carlton, David L.

Martin, Waldo E.

Our Hearts Fell to the Ground & Scopes Trial & Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s

Calloway, Colin G.

Student's Guide to History 10e & Scopes Trial

Benjamin, Jules R.

World

What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? & Scopes Trial & Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s

Murray, Alice Yang

Reading the American Past 4e V2 & How the Other Half Lives & Scopes Trial

Johnson, Michael P.

Riis, Jacob A.

Leviatin, David

Sex education, since its advent at the dawn of the twentieth century, has provoked the hopes and fears of generations of parents, educators, politicians, and reformers. On its success or failure seems to hinge the moral fate of the nation and its future citizens. But whether we argue over condom distribution to teenagers or the use of an anti-abortion curriculum in high schools, we rarely question the basic premise--that adolescents need to be educated about sex. How did we come to expect the public schools to manage our children's sexuality? More important, what is it about the adolescent that arouses so much anxiety among adults? 
 Teaching Sex travels back over the past century to trace the emergence of the "sexual adolescent" and the evolution of the schools' efforts to teach sex to this captive pupil. Jeffrey Moran takes us on a fascinating ride through America's sexual mores: from a time when young men were warned about the crippling effects of masturbation, to the belief that schools could and should train adolescents in proper courtship and parenting techniques, to the reemergence of sexual abstention brought by the AIDS crisis. We see how the political and moral anxieties of each era found their way into sex education curricula, reflecting the priorities of the elders more than the concerns of the young. 
 Moran illuminates the aspirations and limits of sex education and the ability of public authority to shape private behavior. More than a critique of public health policy, Teaching Sex is a broad cultural inquiry into America's understanding of adolescence, sexual morality, and social reform.

Teaching Sex: The Shaping of Adolescence in the 20th Century

Self-Help

Harvard University Press

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Books by Moran, Jeffrey P.