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Edward Larson
Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law
Richard B. Russell Professor of American History
Albert Christ-Janer Award 2001
Edward J. Larson, the Richard B. Russell Professor of American
History and the Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law, has a long-established
record of scholarship on the theory of evolution and its social
implications. He is best known for his 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning
book, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s
Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. The book chronicles
the the1925 trial of high school biology teacher John Scopes, who
was arrested for teaching the theory of evolution. The trial pitted
lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryant in a battle
about the teaching of evolution and creationism in public schools.
Dr. Larson’s other books include: Trial and Error: The American
Controversy Over Creation and Evolution; Sex, Race, and Science:
Eugenics in the Deep South; and Evolution’s Workshop: God
and Science on the Galapagos Islands, which chronicles the history
of science and environmental protection on these islands. Among
his numerous publications are two co-authored technical books on
law and medicine and 12 law review articles.
His research primarily focuses on issues of law, science and medicine
from a historical perspective and has been featured in such publications
as Nature, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, The New
York Times, Virginia Law Review, and British Journal for the History
of Science. He has lectured at universities in Australia, Europe,
Africa, China and New Zealand. As a result of his book on the Scopes
trial, he has been interviewed on major programs for PBS, the History
Channel, CNN and C-SPAN.
In 2000, Dr. Larson won the George Sarton Award and delivered
the prestigious George Sarton Lecture at the annual meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The award
honors scholarship in the history of science and is jointly sponsored
by AAAS and the History of Science Society. The Fulbright Program
named him the John Adams Chair in American Studies in 2001.
Source: 22nd Annual Research Awards Program (2001)
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