These balanced historical essays chronicle the profound impact of modern scientific and philosophical naturalism on American religious thought during the pivotal 1920s, when all the gods trembled before Darwinism and its ilk. Paul Conkin offers keen insights into the historic fundamentalist-modernist controversy and the ongoing debate over science and religion.
Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Summer for ... Read morethe Gods When All the Gods Trembled does a fine job of identifying the specific elements in the Judeo-Christian tradition that evolutionary theory tended to undermine.
CHOICE
Conkin provides a sensitive sociocultural description of the residents of Dayton, who were humiliated by their portrayal in the national media. He is critical of the caricatures provided by those who conspired to uncover, maximize, and even manufacture a kind of 'cultural warfare.'
Karl W. Giberson and Donald A. Yerxa
Books and Culture
Both satisfying and enjoyable. . . . I am glad that I had an opportunity to review When All the Gods Trembled: Darwinism, Scopes, and American Intellectuals.
Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University
The Review of Politics
Distinguished historian Paul Conkin has given us a provocative book surveying a key period in America's intellectual history. Conkin deserves credit for writing an eminently readable overview with keen insights into important issues such as Darwinism, fundamentalism, and modernism.
Barry Hankins, Baylor University
Journal of Church and State
Three stars . . . important.
Science and Spirit, Vol. 10 Issue 2 July/August 1999
Dense typesetting allows the book's short length to conceal a surprising amount of text. With a sympathetic, dense, and readable style that accepts no nonsense, Conkin provides a wide-ranging analysis in this compact, useful volume.
Randall L. Hall, Wake Forest University
Georgia Historical Quarterly
The real contribution of Conkin's book lies in the chapters that examine the profound issues at stake in the conflict between religious faith and scientific naturalism that the Scopes trial came to symbolize. For its recasting of the putative conflict between faith and science in these unfamiliar terms plus its remarkable incisiveness on the contributing issues, this book is recommended to anyone interested in twentieth-century American intellectual life.
Journal of Southern History
Conkin provides a useful introduction to the cultural crises of the 1920s.
Journal Of The History Of Biology
A worthwhile addition to the literature of the Scopes trial and of the evolution controversy in the United States.
North Carolina Historical Review
The book is a crisp and handy guide to the story of American religious belief in the early part of the twentieth century.
Journal of American History
A well-balanced, intellectual, and thoughtful discourse on the very serious and perplexing questions that science poses to faith When All the Gods Trembled is highly recommended reading for both students and general readers with an interest in the impact of 19th and 20th sciences on religious belief in the United States.
The Bookwatch
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