Keeping the Faith

“Captivating . . . Keeping the Faith is history at its most delicious, presented free from the musty smell of the archives where it was clearly assembled with great care. And if you have been awake for the past 16 years or so, you won’t miss the point. The struggles of yesteryear between reason and ignorance do not merely illuminate those of the present. They are the same struggle. This is a story from a past that isn’t even past.”—The New York Times “A briskly told chronicle by Brenda Wineapple, who has a knack for producing popular histories with contemporary resonance.”—The New Yorker “[A] gripping and expansive reexamination of the Scopes Monkey Trial . . . This historical investigation pulses with urgency.”—Publishers Weekly “The notorious ‘monkey trial’ in expert hands.”—Kirkus Reviews “A brilliant account of the Scopes trial, as fair-minded as it is well written, as compelling as it is richly detailed—and as relevant to today’s America as it is faithful to the America of a century ago.”—Geoffrey C. Ward, author of A First-Class Temperament “It has everything—the clash of science and faith, dueling celebrity lawyers, intense media interest. Brenda Wineapple’s wonderful account sheds light not only on the battles of the past but on the unfolding struggles of the urgent present.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of And There Was Light “In Brenda Wineapple’s hands, a century-old event opens a window on our country today, when the impulse to label certain ideas as too dangerous to be taught is as powerful now as it was when Tennessee made it a crime to teach about evolution.”—Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer Prize–winning legal journalist “Brenda Wineapple brings to compelling life the extravaganza that was the Scopes trial, as well as Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, its jousting antagonists. She recounts a battle about science, religion, truth, and freedom of thought that seems much closer than a century ago.”—Drew Gilpin Faust, New York Times bestselling author of Necessary Trouble “In this propulsive account of the 1925 Scopes trial, Wineapple exposes fault lines in America that continue to haunt us today. Darrow and Bryan emerge as complicated and fascinating characters who embody different versions of American democracy.”—Ken Burns “‘Democracy was on trial,’ Wineapple writes—then as now. A master of historical narrative, she has given us a bracing and illuminating tale for our own troubled times.”—Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Road to Surrender “Much of what we think we know about the famous Scopes trial, we don’t. Our misconceptions need correction—and there is no better corrector than Brenda Wineapple.”—Garry Wills, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg