Historical society meeting to feature new Scopes Trial book

DAYTON — A new book about the Scopes Trial will be the subject for the program of the Rhea County Historical Society meeting on July 21. Co-authored by Randy Moore and Tom Davis, the book is a chronology of events related to the trial and its participants over a period of 375 years. Starting with a calculation of the date of earth’s creation, the book traces developments in science, religion, education and even politics that helped create the Scopes Trial, then follows developments after the trial to the coming centennial celebration in 2025.

“Randy did an amazing job of scouring published sources and finding tidbits of seemingly unrelated events to create this chronology,” Davis said. “This book probably would best be described as a collection of facts instead of an encyclopedia of the trial. But it adds color to the trial’s history and gives insights into the people and the culture which produced the trial.”

Randy Moore is the H. T. Morse–Alumni Professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and has researched and written extensively on the Scopes trial and John Scopes, including the recent John Thomas Scopes: A Biography. Tom Davis is a past president of the Rhea County Historical Society and for many years has chaired the annual Scopes Trial Play & Heritage Days celebration.

The Historical Society meeting will be at 2:30 p.m. July 21, in the Scopes Trial Courtroom of the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton.