Podcasts about William Jennings Bryan

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comRobert is a journalist and historian. He served as president and editor-in-chief of Congressional Quarterly, the editor of The National Interest, and the editor of The American Conservative, and he covered Washington as a reporter for the WSJ for more than a decade. He has written many history books, including the one we're discussing this week: President McKinley: Architect of the American Century. It's a lively read, a fascinating glimpse of fin-de-siècle American politics, and of a GOP firmer on tariffs — but a hell of a lot more virtuous than it is under Trump today.For two clips of our convo — on McKinley's heroism during the Civil War, and the reasons he differs so much from Trump — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: Robert's journalist dad and his conservative influence; his own career as a journo; McKinley's roots in Ohio; his abolitionist parents; his mentor Rutherford B Hayes; his time in Congress; the economic depression of the 1890s; the debate over the gold standard; McKinley's “front-porch strategy” besting the great populist orator William Jennings Bryan; his underrated presidency; his modesty and “commanding quiet”; his incremental pragmatism — in the spirit of Oakeshott's “trimmer”; ushering in American empire; the Spanish-American War; the sinking of the Maine; taking over the Philippines; annexing Hawaii; leaving Cuba to the Cubans; the Panama Canal; McKinley's strong support of tariffs; his later pivot towards reciprocity in trade; his lackluster record on race relations; his assassination by an anarchist; Teddy taking over; his bombast contrasting with his predecessor; trust-busting; McKinley's remarkable marriage; his wife's epilepsy; HW Bush; and if a McKinley type of conservative could succeed in today's GOP.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Chris Matthews — who just revived “Hardball” on Substack, Tara Zahra on the revolt against globalization after WWI, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, Arthur C. Brooks on the science of happiness, Paul Elie on crypto-religion in ‘80s pop culture, and Johann Hari coming back to turn the tables and interview me for the pod. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

THIS ONE'S GOT IT ALL, FOLKS - hucksters, country music, goat testicles, pirate radio, patent medicines, wire fraud, William Jennings Bryan...you name it! This is the bizarre story of how rural America fell in love with country music.

This Day in Legal History: John T. Scopes ArrestedOn May 5, 1925, John T. Scopes, a 24-year-old high school science teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was arrested for violating the state's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools. His arrest set in motion one of the most famous trials in American history: the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. The case was a deliberate test of the new law, orchestrated by local businessmen and supported by the ACLU, who wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the statute. Scopes agreed to be the defendant, even though there was uncertainty about whether he had actually taught evolution during class.The trial drew national attention, pitting two legal giants against each other: William Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate and staunch creationist, for the prosecution, and Clarence Darrow, one of the most famous defense attorneys of the era, for the defense. The proceedings became a spectacle, with reporters from across the country descending on Dayton. The courtroom debate highlighted the deep cultural divide between modernist and fundamentalist values in 1920s America.Scopes was ultimately found guilty and fined $100, though the verdict was later overturned on a technicality. However, the trial's significance went far beyond the outcome. It sparked national conversation about science, religion, education, and the role of government in regulating ideas taught in schools. The Butler Act remained in effect until 1967, and the trial inspired numerous retellings in literature and film, including Inherit the Wind. The Scopes Trial remains a key historical moment in the legal and cultural struggle over academic freedom and the separation of church and state.The first quarter of 2025 offered law firms a paradox: weak demand to start the year, followed by a surge in legal work tied to renewed global trade tensions under President Trump. According to the Thomson Reuters Institute's Law Firm Financial Index, litigation and transactional practices saw a marked uptick in March, largely driven by tariff-related disputes. This late-quarter boost helped mask deeper structural issues—namely declining lawyer productivity and elevated expenses.Despite the spike in work, the index dropped 13 points from Q4 2024, reflecting sluggish growth in demand and a 2.4% year-over-year drop in productivity. Direct expenses, driven by aggressive lateral hiring and performance-based bonus payouts, rose 7.6%, while overhead climbed 6.3%. These figures underscore the cost pressures firms are navigating even as they attempt to capitalize on short-term geopolitical volatility.Billing rates were a rare highlight. Firms raised rates by 7.3% over the prior year, marking the most aggressive pricing push since 2005. That pricing power helped offset some of the drag from low productivity and rising costs.Still, the benefits of this trade-driven spike appear temporary. The report notes that economic instability—particularly trade disruptions—tends to generate front-loaded demand that quickly tapers. With several financial institutions upping their recession odds for late 2025, law firm leaders are being urged to treat Q1 gains as a buffer, not a trend.The legal sector may have outperformed expectations in early 2025, but its exposure to macroeconomic uncertainty is increasing. Strategic planning—not reactive optimism—will determine how firms fare in the months ahead.Trade war boosted law firm demand in early 2025 but challenges lie ahead, report says | ReutersCalifornia's experiment with a homegrown bar exam has officially unraveled. Following a disastrous February rollout plagued by scoring issues, technical failures, and the undisclosed use of AI-generated questions, the California Supreme Court has scrapped the state's new exam for July and ordered a return to the traditional Multistate Bar Exam (MBE).In a Friday order, the court cited ongoing concerns with the question development process and approved a series of score adjustments to mitigate the damage done to February test-takers. Results, initially due that same day, were delayed until Monday to accommodate recalculations. The court also mandated that July's exam revert to the format and components used prior to the February overhaul, abandoning the cost-saving, AI-assisted approach California had pursued.This reversal is not cheap. The State Bar now expects to spend $2.3 million more than originally budgeted to address the fallout, effectively wiping out the projected $3.8 million in annual savings the new system was meant to deliver. Executive Director Leah Wilson, who had championed the exam reform, announced she will step down in July.The court also set the passing score for February's test at 534—lower than what standardized testing experts had advised—and instructed the bar to estimate (“impute”) scores for candidates unable to complete major sections of the exam due to system failures.California, home to the nation's second-largest pool of bar applicants, has now reversed course entirely. What was meant to be a modern, streamlined alternative has turned into a cautionary tale about reform without readiness.California scraps new bar exam for July, adjusts scores on botched February test | ReutersDonald Trump's second-term judicial nomination strategy is picking up right where his first left off: turning to state solicitors general and their deputies to stock the federal bench with young, deeply conservative legal talent. His first new appellate pick, Whitney Hermandorfer of Tennessee, reflects a clear pattern—Trump is drawing from red-state lawyers who've spent the last several years battling the Biden administration in federal courts on issues like abortion, transgender rights, and administrative authority.Hermandorfer, who currently leads strategic litigation for Tennessee's attorney general, has defended the state's abortion ban in medical emergency cases and pushed back against federal Title IX expansions to protect transgender students. She also clerked for three sitting conservative justices, checking all the ideological boxes sought by Trump's judicial selection machine. Her nomination is part of a larger pipeline strategy that prioritizes appellate experience in politically charged litigation and loyalty to the conservative legal movement.This approach is anything but accidental. State solicitors general, particularly in Republican-controlled states, have become central figures in the legal battles over federal policy, turning what was once a technical appellate role into a political proving ground. The result: a crop of hardline conservative lawyers—like Mississippi's Scott Stewart, who argued Dobbs, or Alabama's Edmund LaCour, who defended gender-affirming care bans—ready to step into lifetime judicial roles.With at least 45 current and 15 future federal vacancies, including six at the appellate level, Trump has the opportunity to accelerate his effort to reshape the judiciary. The model is clear: ideological fidelity, battlefield experience, and youth. What's emerging is a deliberate, well-coordinated pipeline from red-state litigation offices straight onto the federal bench—a move likely to solidify conservative judicial influence for decades.Trump Returns to Red State Appeals Lawyers to Fill Judgeships This is a public episode. 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A year ago, the great American historian Adam Hochschild came on KEEN ON AMERICA to discuss American Midnight, his best selling account of the crisis of American democracy after World War One. A year later, is history really repeating itself in today's crisis of American democracy? For Hochschild, there are certainly parallels between the current political situation in the US and post WW1 America. Describing how wartime hysteria and fear of communism led to unprecedented government repression, including mass imprisonment for political speech, vigilante violence, and press censorship. Hochschild notes eery similarities to today's Trump's administration. He expresses concern about today's threats to democratic institutions while suggesting the importance of understanding Trump supporters' grievances and finding ways to bridge political divides. Five Key Takeaways* The period of 1917-1921 in America saw extreme government repression, including imprisoning people for speech, vigilante violence, and widespread censorship—what Hochschild calls America's "Trumpiest" era before Trump.* American history shows recurring patterns of nativism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and scapegoating that politicians exploit during times of economic or social stress.* The current political climate shows concerning parallels to this earlier period, including intimidation of opposition, attacks on institutions, and the widespread acceptance of authoritarian tendencies.* Hochschild emphasizes the importance of understanding the grievances and suffering that lead people to support authoritarian figures rather than dismissing their concerns.* Despite current divisions, Hochschild believes reconciliation is possible and necessary, pointing to historical examples like President Harding pardoning Eugene Debs after Wilson imprisoned him. Full Transcript Andrew Keen: Hello, everybody. We recently celebrated our 2500th edition of Keen On. Some people suggest I'm mad. I think I probably am to do so many shows. Just over a little more than a year ago, we celebrated our 2000th show featuring one of America's most distinguished historians, Adam Hochschild. I'm thrilled that Adam is joining us again a year later. He's the author of "American Midnight, The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis." This was his last book. He's the author of many other books. He is now working on a book on the Great Depression. He's joining us from his home in Berkeley, California. Adam, to borrow a famous phrase or remix a famous phrase, a year is a long time in American history.Adam Hochschild: That's true, Andrew. I think this past year, or actually this past 100 days or so has been a very long and very difficult time in American history that we all saw coming to some degree, but I don't think we realized it would be as extreme and as rapid as it has been.Andrew Keen: Your book, Adam, "American Midnight, A Great War of Violent Peace and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis," is perhaps the most prescient warning. When you researched that you were saying before we went live that your books usually take you between four and five years, so you couldn't really have planned for this, although I guess you began writing and researching American Midnight during the Trump 1.0 regime. Did you write it as a warning to something like is happening today in America?Adam Hochschild: Well, I did start writing it and did most of the work on it during Trump's first term in office. So I was very struck by the parallels. And they're in plain sight for everybody to see. There are various dark currents that run through this country of ours. Nativism, threats to deport troublemakers. Politicians stirring up violent feelings against immigrants, vigilante violence, all those things have been with us for a long time. I've always been fascinated by that period, 1917 to 21, when they surged to the surface in a very nasty way. That was the subject of the book. Naturally, I hoped we wouldn't have to go through anything like that again, but here we are definitely going through it again.Andrew Keen: You wrote a lovely piece earlier this month for the Washington Post. "America was at its Trumpiest a hundred years ago. Here's how to prevent the worst." What did you mean by Trumpiest, Adam? I'm not sure if you came up with that title, but I know you like the term. You begin the essay. What was the Trumpiest period in American life before Donald Trump?Adam Hochschild: Well, I didn't invent the word, but I certainly did use it in the piece. What I meant by that is that when you look at this period just over 100 years ago, 1917 to 1921, Woodrow Wilson's second term in office, two things happened in 1917 that kicked off a kind of hysteria in this country. One was that Wilson asked the American Congress to declare war on Germany, which it promptly did, and when a country enters a major war, especially a world war, it sets off a kind of hysteria. And then that was redoubled some months later when the country received news of the Russian Revolution, and many people in the establishment in America were afraid the Russian Revolution might come to the United States.So, a number of things happened. One was that there was a total hysteria against all things German. There were bonfires of German books all around the country. People would take German books out of libraries, schools, college and university libraries and burn them in the street. 19 such bonfires in Ohio alone. You can see pictures of it on the internet. There was hysteria about the German language. I heard about this from my father as I was growing up because his father was a Jewish immigrant from Germany. They lived in New York City. They spoke German around the family dinner table, but they were terrified of doing so on the street because you could get beaten up for that. Several states passed laws against speaking German in public or speaking German on the telephone. Eminent professors declared that German was a barbaric language. So there was that kind of hysteria.Then as soon as the United States declared war, Wilson pushed the Espionage Act through Congress, this draconian law, which essentially gave the government the right to lock up anybody who said something that was taken to be against the war. And they used this law in a devastating way. During those four years, roughly a thousand Americans spent a year or more in jail and a much larger number, shorter periods in jail solely for things that they wrote or said. These were people who were political prisoners sent to jail simply for something they wrote or said, the most famous of them was Eugene Debs, many times the socialist candidate for president. He'd gotten 6% of the popular vote in 1912 and in 1918. For giving an anti-war speech from a park bandstand in Ohio, he was sent to prison for 10 years. And he was still in prison two years after the war ended in November, 1920, when he pulled more than 900,000 votes for president from his jail cell in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.So that was one phase of the repression, political prisoners. Another was vigilante violence. The government itself, the Department of Justice, chartered a vigilante group, something called the American Protective League, which went around roughing up people that it thought were evading the draft, beating up people at anti-war rallies, arresting people with citizens arrest whom they didn't have their proper draft papers on them, holding them for hours or sometimes for days until they could produce the right paperwork.Andrew Keen: I remember, Adam, you have a very graphic description of some of this violence in American Midnight. There was a story, was it a union leader?Adam Hochschild: Well, there is so much violence that happened during that time. I begin the book with a graphic description of vigilantes raiding an office of the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, taking a bunch of wobblies out into the prairie at night, stripping them, whipping them, flogging them fiercely, and then tarring and feathering them, and firing shotguns over their heads so they would run off into the Prairie at Night. And they did. Those guys were lucky because they survive. Other people were killed by this vigilante violence.And the final thing about that period which I would mention is the press censorship. The Espionage Act gave the Postmaster General the power to declare any publication in the United States unmailable. And for a newspaper or a magazine that was trying to reach a national audience, the only way you could do so was through the US mail because there was no internet then. No radio, no TV, no other way of getting your publication to somebody. And this put some 75 newspapers and magazines that the government didn't like out of business. It in addition censored three or four hundred specific issues of other publications as well.So that's why I feel this is all a very dark period of American life. Ironically, that press censorship operation, because it was run by the postmaster general, who by the way loved being chief censor, it was ran out of the building that was then the post office headquarters in Washington, which a hundred years later became the Trump International Hotel. And for $4,000 a night, you could stay in the Postmaster General's suite.Andrew Keen: You, Adam, the First World War is a subject you're very familiar with. In addition to American Midnight, you wrote "To End All Wars, a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914 to 18," which was another very successful of your historical recreations. Many countries around the world experience this turbulence, the violence. Of course, we had fascism in the 20s in Europe. And later in the 30s as well. America has a long history of violence. You talk about the violence after the First World War or after the declaration. But I was just in Montgomery, Alabama, went to the lynching museum there, which is considerably troubling. I'm sure you've been there. You're not necessarily a comparative political scientist, Adam. How does America, in its paranoia during the war and its clampdown on press freedom, on its violence, on its attempt to create an authoritarian political system, how does it compare to other democracies? Is some of this stuff uniquely American or is it a similar development around the world?Adam Hochschild: You see similar pressures almost any time that a major country is involved in a major war. Wars are never good for civil liberties. The First World War, to stick with that period of comparison, was a time that saw strong anti-war movements in all of the warring countries, in Germany and Britain and Russia. There were people who understood at the time that this war was going to remake the world for the worse in every way, which indeed it did, and who refused to fight. There were 800 conscientious objectors jailed in Russia, and Russia did not have much freedom of expression to begin with. In Germany, many distinguished people on the left, like Rosa Luxemburg, were sent to jail for most of the war.Britain was an interesting case because I think they had a much longer established tradition of free speech than did the countries on the continent. It goes way back and it's a distinguished and wonderful tradition. They were also worried for the first two and a half, three years of the war before the United States entered, that if they crack down too hard on their anti-war movement, it would upset people in the United States, which they were desperate to draw into the war on their side. Nonetheless, there were 6,000 conscientious objectors who were sent to jail in England. There was intermittent censorship of anti-war publications, although some were able to publish some of the time. There were many distinguished Britons, such as Bertrand Russell, the philosopher who later won a Nobel Prize, sent to jails for six months for his opposition to the war. So some of this happened all over.But I think in the United States, especially with these vigilante groups, it took a more violent form because remember the country at that time was only a few decades away from these frontier wars with the Indians. And the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century, the western expansion of white settlement was an enormously bloody business that was almost genocidal for the Native Americans. Many people had participated in that. Many people saw that violence as integral to what the country was. So there was a pretty well-established tradition of settling differences violently.Andrew Keen: I'm sure you're familiar with Stephen Hahn's book, "A Liberal America." He teaches at NYU, a book which in some ways is very similar to yours, but covers all of American history. Hahn was recently on the Ezra Klein show, talking like you, like we're talking today, Adam, about the very American roots of Trumpism. Hahn, it's an interesting book, traces much of this back to Jackson and the wars of the frontier against Indians. Do you share his thesis on that front? Are there strong similarities between Jackson, Wilson, and perhaps even Trump?Adam Hochschild: Well, I regret to say I'm not familiar with Hahn's book, but I certainly do feel that that legacy of constant war for most of the 19th century against the Native Americans ran very deep in this country. And we must never forget how appealing it is to young men to take part in war. Unfortunately, all through history, there have been people very tempted by this. And I think when you have wars of conquest, such as happen in the American West, against people who are more poorly armed, or colonial wars such as Europe fought in Africa and Asia against much more poorly-armed opponents, these are especially appealing to young people. And in both the United States and in the European colonization of Africa, which I know something about. For young men joining in these colonizing or conquering adventures, there was a chance not just to get martial glory, but to also get rich in the process.Andrew Keen: You're all too familiar with colonial history, Adam. Another of your books was about King Leopold's Congo and the brutality there. Where was the most coherent opposition morally and politically to what was happening? My sense in Trump's America is perhaps the most persuasive and moral critique comes from the old Republican Center from people like David Brooks, Peter Wayno has been on the show many times, Jonathan Rausch. Where were people like Teddy Roosevelt in this narrative? Were there critics from the right as well as from the left?Adam Hochschild: Good question. I first of all would give a shout out to those Republican centrists who've spoken out against Trump, the McCain Republicans. There are some good people there - Romney, of course as well. They've been very forceful. There wasn't really an equivalent to that, a direct equivalent to that in the Wilson era. Teddy Roosevelt whom you mentioned was a far more ferocious drum beater than Wilson himself and was pushing Wilson to declare war long before Wilson did. Roosevelt really believed that war was good for the soul. He desperately tried to get Wilson to appoint him to lead a volunteer force, came up with an elaborate plan for this would be a volunteer army staffed by descendants of both Union and Confederate generals and by French officers as well and homage to the Marquis de Lafayette. Wilson refused to allow Roosevelt to do this, and plus Roosevelt was, I think, 58 years old at the time. But all four of Roosevelt's sons enlisted and joined in the war, and one of them was killed. And his father was absolutely devastated by this.So there was not really that equivalent to the McCain Republicans who are resisting Trump, so to speak. In fact, what resistance there was in the U.S. came mostly from the left, and it was mostly ruthlessly silenced, all these people who went to jail. It was silenced also because this is another important part of what happened, which is different from today. When the federal government passed the Espionage Act that gave it these draconian powers, state governments, many of them passed copycat laws. In fact, a federal justice department agent actually helped draft the law in New Hampshire. Montana locked up people serving more than 60 years cumulatively of hard labor for opposing the war. California had 70 people in prison. Even my hometown of Berkeley, California passed a copycat law. So, this martial spirit really spread throughout the country at that time.Andrew Keen: So you've mentioned that Debs was the great critic and was imprisoned and got a considerable number of votes in the election. You're writing a book now about the Great Depression and FDR's involvement in it. FDR, of course, was a distant cousin of Teddy Roosevelt. At this point, he was an aspiring Democratic politician. Where was the critique within the mainstream Democratic party? Were people like FDR, who had a position in the Wilson administration, wasn't he naval secretary?Adam Hochschild: He was assistant secretary of the Navy. And he went to Europe during the war. For an aspiring politician, it's always very important to say I've been at the front. And so he went to Europe and certainly made no sign of resistance. And then in 1920, he was the democratic candidate for vice president. That ticket lost of course.Andrew Keen: And just to remind ourselves, this was before he became disabled through polio, is that correct?Adam Hochschild: That's right. That happened in the early 20s and it completely changed his life and I think quite deepened him as a person. He was a very ambitious social climbing young politician before then but I think he became something deeper. Also the political parties at the time were divided each party between right and left wings or war mongering and pacifist wings. And when the Congress voted on the war, there were six senators who voted against going to war and 50 members of the House of Representatives. And those senators and representatives came from both parties. We think of the Republican Party as being more conservative, but it had some staunch liberals in it. The most outspoken voice against the war in the Senate was Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin, who was a Republican.Andrew Keen: I know you write about La Follette in American Midnight, but couldn't one, Adam, couldn't won before the war and against domestic repression. You wrote an interesting piece recently for the New York Review of Books about the Scopes trial. William Jennings Bryan, of course, was involved in that. He was the defeated Democratic candidate, what in about three or four presidential elections in the past. In the early 20th century. What was Bryan's position on this? He had been against the war, is that correct? But I'm guessing he would have been quite critical of some of the domestic repression.Adam Hochschild: You know, I should know the answer to that, Andrew, but I don't. He certainly was against going to war. He had started out in Wilson's first term as Wilson's secretary of state and then resigned in protest against the military buildup and what he saw as a drift to war, and I give him great credit for that. I don't recall his speaking out against the repression after it began, once the US entered the war, but I could be wrong on that. It was not something that I researched. There were just so few voices speaking out. I think I would remember if he had been one of them.Andrew Keen: Adam, again, I'm thinking out loud here, so please correct me if this is a dumb question. What would it be fair to say that one of the things that distinguished the United States from the European powers during the First World War in this period it remained an incredibly insular provincial place barely involved in international politics with a population many of them were migrants themselves would come from Europe but nonetheless cut off from the world. And much of that accounted for the anti-immigrant, anti-foreign hysteria. That exists in many countries, but perhaps it was a little bit more pronounced in the America of the early 20th century, and perhaps in some ways in the early 21st century.Adam Hochschild: Well, we remain a pretty insular place in many ways. A few years ago, I remember seeing the statistic in the New York Times, I have not checked to see whether it's still the case, but I suspect it is that half the members of the United States Congress do not have passports. And we are more cut off from the world than people living in most of the countries of Europe, for example. And I think that does account for some of the tremendous feeling against immigrants and refugees. Although, of course, this is something that is common, not just in Europe, but in many countries all over the world. And I fear it's going to get all the stronger as climate change generates more and more refugees from the center of the earth going to places farther north or farther south where they can get away from parts of the world that have become almost unlivable because of climate change.Andrew Keen: I wonder Democratic Congress people perhaps aren't leaving the country because they fear they won't be let back in. What were the concrete consequences of all this? You write in your book about a young lawyer, J. Edgar Hoover, of course, who made his name in this period. He was very much involved in the Palmer Raids. He worked, I think his first job was for Palmer. How do you see this structurally? Of course, many historians, biographers of Hoover have seen this as the beginning of some sort of American security state. Is that over-reading it, exaggerating what happened in this period?Adam Hochschild: Well, security state may be too dignified a word for the hysteria that reigned in the country at that time. One of the things we've long had in the United States is a hysteria, paranoia directed at immigrants who are coming from what seems to be a new and threatening part of the world. In the mid-19th century, for example, we had the Know-Nothing Party, as it was called, who were violently opposed to Catholic immigrants coming from Ireland. Now, they were people of Anglo-Saxon descent, pretty much, who felt that these Irish Catholics were a tremendous threat to the America that they knew. There was much violence. There were people killed in riots against Catholic immigrants. There were Catholic merchants who had their stores burned and so on.Then it began to shift. The Irish sort of became acceptable, but by the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century the immigrants coming from Europe were now coming primarily from southern and eastern Europe. In other words, Italians, Sicilians, Poles, and Jews. And they became the target of the anti-immigrant crusaders with much hysteria directed against them. It was further inflamed at that time by the Eugenics movement, which was something very strong, where people believed that there was a Nordic race that was somehow superior to everybody else, that the Mediterraneans were inferior people, and that the Africans were so far down the scale, barely worth talking about. And this culminated in 1924 with the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act that year, which basically slammed the door completely on immigrants coming from Asia and slowed to an absolute trickle those coming from Europe for the next 40 years or so.Andrew Keen: It wasn't until the mid-60s that immigration changed, which is often overlooked. Some people, even on the left, suggest that it was a mistake to radically reform the Immigration Act because we would have inevitably found ourselves back in this situation. What do you think about that, Adam?Adam Hochschild: Well, I think a country has the right to regulate to some degree its immigration, but there always will be immigration in this world. I mean, my ancestors all came from other countries. The Jewish side of my family, I'm half Jewish, were lucky to get out of Europe in plenty of time. Some relatives who stayed there were not lucky and perished in the Holocaust. So who am I to say that somebody fleeing a repressive regime in El Salvador or somewhere else doesn't have the right to come here? I think we should be pretty tolerant, especially if people fleeing countries where they really risk death for one reason or another. But there is always gonna be this strong anti-immigrant feeling because unscrupulous politicians like Donald Trump, and he has many predecessors in this country, can point to immigrants and blame them for the economic misfortunes that many Americans are experiencing for reasons that don't have anything to do with immigration.Andrew Keen: Fast forward Adam to today. You were involved in an interesting conversation on the Nation about the role of universities in the resistance. What do you make of this first hundred days, I was going to say hundred years that would be a Freudian error, a hundred days of the Trump regime, the role, of big law, big universities, newspapers, media outlets? In this emerging opposition, are you chilled or encouraged?Adam Hochschild: Well, I hope it's a hundred days and not a hundred years. I am moderately encouraged. I was certainly deeply disappointed at the outset to see all of those tech titans go to Washington, kiss the ring, contribute to Trump's inauguration festivities, be there in the front row. Very depressing spectacle, which kind of reminds one of how all the big German industrialists fell into line so quickly behind Hitler. And I'm particularly depressed to see the changes in the media, both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post becoming much more tame when it came to endorsing.Andrew Keen: One of the reasons for that, Adam, of course, is that you're a long-time professor at the journalism school at UC Berkeley, so you've been on the front lines.Adam Hochschild: So I really care about a lively press that has free expression. And we also have a huge part of the media like Fox News and One American Network and other outlets that are just pouring forth a constant fire hose of lies and falsehood.Andrew Keen: And you're being kind of calling it a fire hose. I think we could come up with other terms for it. Anyway, a sewage pipe, but that's another issue.Adam Hochschild: But I'm encouraged when I see media organizations that take a stand. There are places like the New York Times, like CNN, like MSNBC, like the major TV networks, which you can read or watch and really find an honest picture of what's going on. And I think that's a tremendously important thing for a country to have. And that you look at the countries that Donald Trump admires, like Putin's Russia, for example, they don't have this. So I value that. I want to keep it. I think that's tremendously important.I was sorry, of course, that so many of those big law firms immediately cave to these ridiculous and unprecedented demands that he made, contributing pro bono work to his causes in return for not getting banned from government buildings. Nothing like that has happened in American history before, and the people in those firms that made those decisions should really be ashamed of themselves. I was glad to see Harvard University, which happens to be my alma mater, be defiant after caving in a little bit on a couple of issues. They finally put their foot down and said no. And I must say, feeling Harvard patriotism is a very rare emotion for me. But this is the first time in 50 years that I've felt some of it.Andrew Keen: You may even give a donation, Adam.Adam Hochschild: And I hope other universities are going to follow its lead, and it looks like they will. But this is pretty unprecedented, a president coming after universities with this determined of ferocity. And he's going after nonprofit organizations as well. There will be many fights there as well, I'm sure we're just waiting to hear about the next wave of attacks which will be on places like the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation and other big nonprofits. So hold on and wait for that and I hope they are as defiant as possible too.Andrew Keen: It's a little bit jarring to hear a wise historian like yourself use the word unprecedented. Is there much else of this given that we're talking historically and the similarities with the period after the first world war, is there anything else unprecedented about Trumpism?Adam Hochschild: I think in a way, we have often had, or not often, but certainly sometimes had presidents in this country who wanted to assume almost dictatorial powers. Richard Nixon certainly is the most recent case before Trump. And he was eventually stopped and forced to leave office. Had that not happened, I think he would have very happily turned himself into a dictator. So we know that there are temptations that come with the desire for absolute power everywhere. But Trump has gotten farther along on this process and has shown less willingness to do things like abide by court orders. The way that he puts pressure on Republican members of Congress.To me, one of the most startling, disappointing, remarkable, and shocking things about these first hundred days is how very few Republican members to the House or Senate have dared to defy Trump on anything. At most, these ridiculous set of appointees that he muscled through the Senate. At most, they got three Republican votes against them. They couldn't muster the fourth necessary vote. And in the House, only one or two Republicans have voted against Trump on anything. And of course, he has threatened to have Elon Musk fund primaries against any member of Congress who does defy him. And I can't help but think that these folks must also be afraid of physical violence because Trump has let all the January 6th people out of jail and the way vigilantes like that operate is they first go after the traitors on their own side then they come for the rest of us just as in the first real burst of violence in Hitler's Germany was the night of the long knives against another faction of the Nazi Party. Then they started coming for the Jews.Andrew Keen: Finally, Adam, your wife, Arlie, is another very distinguished writer.Adam Hochschild: I've got a better picture of her than that one though.Andrew Keen: Well, I got some very nice photos. This one is perhaps a little, well she's thinking Adam. Everyone knows Arlie from her hugely successful work, "Strangers in their Own Land." She has a new book out, "Stolen Pride, Lost Shame and the Rise of the Right." I don't want to put words into Arlie's mouth and she certainly wouldn't let me do that, Adam, but would it be fair to say that her reading, certainly of recent American history, is trying to bring people back together. She talks about the lessons she learned from her therapist brother. And in some ways, I see her as a kind of marriage counselor in America. Given what's happening today in America with Trump, is this still an opportunity? This thing is going to end and it will end in some ways rather badly and perhaps bloodily one way or the other. But is this still a way to bring people, to bring Americans back together? Can America be reunited? What can we learn from American Midnight? I mean, one of the more encouraging stories I remember, and please correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't it Coolidge or Harding who invited Debs when he left prison to the White House? So American history might be in some ways violent, but it's also made up of chapters of forgiveness.Adam Hochschild: That's true. I mean, that Debs-Harding example is a wonderful one. Here is Debs sent to prison by Woodrow Wilson for a 10-year term. And Debs, by the way, had been in jail before for his leadership of a railway strike when he was a railway workers union organizer. Labor organizing was a very dangerous profession in those days. But Debs was a fairly gentle man, deeply committed to nonviolence. About a year into, a little less than a year into his term, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson's successor, pardoned Debs, let him out of prison, invited him to visit the White House on his way home. And they had a half hour's chat. And when he left the building, Debs told reporters, "I've run for the White house five times, but this is the first time I've actually gotten here." Harding privately told a friend. This was revealed only after his death, that he said, "Debs was right about that war. We never should have gotten involved in it."So yeah, there can be reconciliation. There can be talk across these great differences that we have, and I think there are a number of organizations that are working on that specific project, getting people—Andrew Keen: We've done many of those shows. I'm sure you're familiar with the organization Braver Angels, which seems to be a very good group.Adam Hochschild: So I think it can be done. I really think it could be done and it has to be done and it's important for those of us who are deeply worried about Trump, as you and I are, to understand the grievances and the losses and the suffering that has made Trump's backers feel that here is somebody who can get them out of the pickle that they're in. We have to understand that, and the Democratic Party has to come up with promising alternatives for them, which it really has not done. It didn't really offer one in this last election. And the party itself is in complete disarray right now, I fear.Andrew Keen: I think perhaps Arlie should run for president. She would certainly do a better job than Kamala Harris in explaining it. And of course they're both from Berkeley. Finally, Adam, you're very familiar with the history of Africa, Southern Africa, your family I think was originally from there. Might we need after all this, when hopefully the smoke clears, might we need a Mandela style truth and reconciliation committee to make sense of what's happening?Adam Hochschild: My family's actually not from there, but they were in business there.Andrew Keen: Right, they were in the mining business, weren't they?Adam Hochschild: That's right. Truth and Reconciliation Committee. Well, I don't think it would be on quite the same model as South Africa's. But I certainly think we need to find some way of talking across the differences that we have. Coming from the left side of that divide I just feel all too often when I'm talking to people who feel as I do about the world that there is a kind of contempt or disinterest in Trump's backers. These are people that I want to understand, that we need to understand. We need to understand them in order to hear what their real grievances are and to develop alternative policies that are going to give them a real alternative to vote for. Unless we can do that, we're going to have Trump and his like for a long time, I fear.Andrew Keen: Wise words, Adam. I hope in the next 500 episodes of this show, things will improve. We'll get you back on the show, keep doing your important work, and I'm very excited to learn more about your new project, which we'll come to in the next few months or certainly years. Thank you so much.Adam Hochschild: OK, thank you, Andrew. Good being with you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

In July 1925, Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, and a supporting cast of fascinating characters converged upon Dayton, Tennessee for what became known as "The Scopes Monkey Trial.""The Scopes Monkey Trial 100 Years Later: What Happened Then and Why Should We Care Now?" Is a 6-part course from Doug Mishkin starting April 1st at OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College.

“D” is for Dorn, William Jennings Bryan (1906-2005). Congressman.

This Day in Legal History: Butler Act Passes in TennesseeOn March 13, 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly passed the Butler Act, a law prohibiting public school teachers from denying the biblical account of creation and from teaching evolution. The law reflected growing tensions between religious fundamentalism and modern science in early 20th-century America. Although the statute faced little opposition in the legislature, it soon became the center of national controversy. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sought to challenge the law and found a willing participant in John T. Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, Tennessee. Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution and put on trial in July 1925 in what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial. The trial drew national attention, featuring a courtroom showdown between famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, who argued for the prosecution. Though Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, the case exposed deep cultural divisions in the United States. The verdict was later overturned on a technicality, but the Butler Act remained in effect until 1967. The case paved the way for future legal battles over academic freedom and the separation of church and state in public education.French publishers and authors have filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the tech giant of using copyrighted content without permission to train its AI models. The National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL) allege that Meta engaged in large-scale copyright infringement and economic "parasitism."This marks the first such lawsuit in France against an AI company, though similar cases have emerged in the U.S., where Meta faces lawsuits from authors, including Sarah Silverman and Christopher Farnsworth. Other AI firms, such as OpenAI, are also facing legal challenges in multiple countries over data used to train their models.The French associations argue that Meta's actions amount to “monumental looting” and see the case as a critical battle for copyright protection in the AI era. Meta has not yet responded to the allegations.French publishers and authors file lawsuit against Meta in AI case | ReutersThe Trump administration has revoked $20 billion in funding for greenhouse gas reduction projects, a move criticized by climate advocates and Democrats as an illegal seizure of funds intended for clean energy and disadvantaged communities. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin defended the decision, citing concerns over fraud, waste, and mismanagement, though no specific details were provided. The U.S. Justice Department and FBI are now reviewing the program.The funds were originally allocated through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under President Biden to support pollution-reduction projects. Under Trump, the EPA has sought to halt climate-related funding, aligning with broader efforts to scale back environmental initiatives. The agency has not clarified how it plans to reallocate the funds.In response, the advocacy group Climate United Fund has sued the EPA and Citibank, arguing that withholding the funds violates a legally binding agreement. The lawsuit represents one of the first major legal battles over the Biden-era climate policies under the new administration.Trump administration claws back $20 billion in climate funds | ReutersThe U.S. Department of Education has announced plans to lay off nearly half its staff, potentially setting the stage for its complete elimination as part of President Trump's broader effort to downsize the federal government. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon confirmed the move aligns with Trump's mandate to dismantle the department, which manages student loans and enforces civil rights laws in schools.The layoffs are part of a wider restructuring effort led by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DGE), which has already cut over 100,000 federal jobs and halted numerous programs. While the administration argues these cuts reduce government waste, critics—including unions representing affected workers—condemn them as reckless and legally questionable.Many agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management and the Social Security Administration, have offered early retirement buyouts to meet Trump's cost-cutting demands. However, lawsuits challenging these mass layoffs are mounting, with concerns over legality and disruption to essential government functions.US Education Department to cut half its staff as Trump eyes its elimination | Reuters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

In 2025, the United States experienced a rarity... a nonconsecutive U.S. President took office and the nation was shook by just how nonconsecutive it was after more than 100 years of unmitigated consecutiveness. But, this wasn't the first time a President failed to continue being President only to unfail that same continuation four years later. On this episode, we explore the First Nonconsecutive U.S. Presidency and delve into a man far less Muppety than his name. Oh, and we defy gravity in the MouthGarf Report, and play another charming round of I See What You Did There.Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Clevelandhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/grover-cleveland/https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2025/01/11/rooks-non-consecutive-presidents-couldnt-be-more-different/77580670007/https://reason.com/2025/01/10/we-could-use-a-man-like-grover-cleveland-again/Please give us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts! Want to ask us a question? Talk to us! Email debutbuddies@gmail.comListen to Kelly and Chelsea's awesome horror movie podcast, Never Show the Monster.Get some sci-fi from Spaceboy Books.Get down with Michael J. O'Connor's music!Next time: First Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown Book

The U.S. legal system had been trying for a long time... then one day, they were like, "what if people could experience this as a kind of news-entertainment hybrid?" In the days of radio, it was a case of ignorance vs. evolution centered on a man named Scopes. In the days of television, 1979 specifically, a charming narcissist serial killer defended himself poorly and fronted an air of superiority over the nation. We're discussing the FIRST TELEVISED TRIAL and talking about a few more! Plus, a delicious dose of the MouthGarf Report, and of course, I See What You Did There.Please give us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts! Want to ask us a question? Talk to us! Email debutbuddies@gmail.comListen to Kelly and Chelsea's awesome horror movie podcast, Never Show the Monster.Get some sci-fi from Spaceboy Books.Get down with Michael J. O'Connor's music!Next time: First Nonconsecutive U.S. Presidency

"PREVIEW: Colleague John Cochrane of Stanford explains how extending the working age will strengthen the country. More tonight." 1900 WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

6/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Dayton TN

1/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1913 Clarence Darrow

"PREVIEW: SCOPES TRIAL: 1925: Conversation with Brenda Wineapple, author of ,'Keeping the Faith," about the 1925 '"Monkey Trial,' where the ACLU enabled the famous confrontation in Dayton Tennessee between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. More later." 1925 Dayton Tennessee

8/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1920 Bryan

7/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Darrow in Dayton

2/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1913 Wiliam Jennings Bryan

5/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Bryan in Dayton

4/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Darrow in Dayton

3/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide American today. 1925 Dayton TN

Psalm 78 Worksheet The Hebrew word for contemplation is Maschil (H4905). It is used in the titles of _____ of the Psalms. With 72 verses, Psalm 78 is the second longest of the Psalms. It still only has ______________% as many verses as the longest, Psalm 119 (176 verses). Two more things we know about Asaph: He liked his worship ___________________ (cymbals and trumpets) He influenced _______________________ after him to worship God! Psalm 78:1-8 is like 2 Timothy 2:1-2. There are at least ___________ generations of believers pictured in both passages. Why are we to rise and tell our children the things of the Lord? So they may put their __________________ in God (v. 7) Psalm 78:9-55 is a wonderfully poetic retelling of the Exodus and Conquest of Canaan. God took His people out of Egypt and ___________________________ them to the Promised Land. In these verses we see both God's ____________________________ and Israel's failures and fickleness emphasized. Psalm 78:56-72 celebrate the emergence of __________________________ as foremost of the tribes. Verse 59 speaks of the rejection of Israel, and abandonment of the Tabernacle at Shiloh. What tribe is Shiloh in? _______________________ Genesis 37-50 tells the story of the 12 tribes, and why the Messiah will be from the tribe of Judah not Joseph. In the rest of the Old Testament those 2 tribes _________________________ the others. Even before the Kingdon of Israel divided the basic division of Israel was Judah in the South and Joseph and the other tribes in the North. In the Old Testament, sometimes the _________________________ North is referred to as Joseph or Ephraim, as happens here in Psalm 78. Psalm 78 could also be a rationale around the time of the dedication of the Temple for why the ruling tribe is now Judah and why the Temple is ______________ Judah's borders in Jerusalem, not Ephraim's at Shiloh. Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not something to be waited for, it is something to be achieved. -William Jennings Bryan

#SmallBusinessAmerica: Major changes in retirement plans for business owners.  @GeneMarks  @Guardian @PhillyInquirer 1912 Audience for William Jennings Bryan

Jeopardy! recaps from the week of December 9th, 2024. Kyle regales us with stories of his adventures on a truly terrifying bridge, Emily muses about the Giver quartet, and Kyle brings us a deep dive on William Jennings Bryan. Find us on Facebook (Potent Podables) and Twitter (@potentpodables1). Check out our Patreon (patreon.com/potentpodables). Email us at potentpodablescast@gmail.com. Continue to support social justice movements in your community and our world. www.abortionfunds.org  https://wck.org/  https://womenswilderness.org/support/#ways-to-give  https://www.pcrf.net/   https://www.givedirectly.org/ 

Using the heavily marketed movie "Wicked" as his news hook, Bob explains that the beloved Wizard of Oz movie involved an allegory of the bimetallism debates of the late 1800s, including William Jennings Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech. Bob fills in the details about the Wizard of Oz lore, and then explains the economics of bimetallism in the United States.Bob's Book, Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP478aThe Wikipedia Article on the Political Interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Mises.org/HAP478bThe Wikipedia Article on the Wicked Novel: Mises.org/HAP478cFor just $25, you can receive our December Bundle, including three essential reads:Tom DiLorenzo's Axis of Evil: America's Three Worst Presidents, Per Bylund's How to Think About the Economy,and Murray Rothbard's What Has Government Done to Our Money?. Claim your bundle now at Mises.org/HumanAction24The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Using the heavily marketed movie "Wicked" as his news hook, Bob explains that the beloved Wizard of Oz movie involved an allegory of the bimetallism debates of the late 1800s, including William Jennings Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech. Bob fills in the details about the Wizard of Oz lore, and then explains the economics of bimetallism in the United States.Bob's Book, Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP478aThe Wikipedia Article on the Political Interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Mises.org/HAP478bThe Wikipedia Article on the Wicked Novel: Mises.org/HAP478cFor just $25, you can receive our December Bundle, including three essential reads:Tom DiLorenzo's Axis of Evil: America's Three Worst Presidents, Per Bylund's How to Think About the Economy,and Murray Rothbard's What Has Government Done to Our Money?. Claim your bundle now at Mises.org/HumanAction24The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Give to help Chris make Truce How do ultra-wealthy people avoid paying taxes? It seems like a strange subject to bring up when discussing why some evangelicals are drawn to the Republican Party. But many of the ties between evangelicals and the GOP have to do with money. So, let's take a little side trip and explore the tax loopholes of today. More importantly, let's try to understand why so many Americans are tax-averse. Could it possibly be because we, deep down, know that someone else is getting a better deal than us? One tactic used by the ultra-wealthy is "buy, borrow, die". They avoid "income", instead opting for assets like stock and real estate they can borrow against. Borrowed money is not taxed. Then they either pay back those loans with other loans (often with interest rates that are much lower than their tax rates would be) or they fail to pay back the loans. Then... they die. Jesse Eisinger is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with Pro Publica. Chris first heard about him from his book (pardon the language) The Chickenshit Club and met him when he appeared at a live event in Jackson, WY hosted by the Teton County Library, the Center for the Arts, and the Jackson Hole News and Guide. Sources Pro-Publica's reporting on taxation This lecture at the Center for the Arts in Jackson, WY on November 8, 2023 Fascinating IRS responses to some of the conspiracy theories about them Disney's Donald Duck film "The New Spirit" encourages income tax as a national duty Time Magazine article about the history of taxes William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan by John Pafford (pg 29) New York Times archival article listing taxes paid by the wealthy The 16th Amendment The Macomber case article on Justia.com Historic Tax Bracket data Time Magazine article on the John Birch Society Methodist History from January 1988 Discussion Questions: What are your thoughts on the income tax in general? How should countries be funded? Why might a progressive tax structure (where wealthy people pay more) make sense? How could we close some of these tax loopholes? What is the difference between income and wealth? Should we tax wealth in the USA? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In his failed 1896 presidential campaign, inflationist William Jennings Bryan declared that he would “not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” But at least even Bryan favored silver money. Today‘s political candidates will crucify us on a cross of paper.Original article: Today's Pols Are All Bryanites

In his failed 1896 presidential campaign, inflationist William Jennings Bryan declared that he would “not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” But at least even Bryan favored silver money. Today‘s political candidates will crucify us on a cross of paper.Original article: Today's Pols Are All Bryanites

Bob explains his epiphany to resolve what Darrow had in mind during his famous cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan in the famous Scopes Trial. Note this is a follow-up to his prior episode on the trial.Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:BMS ep 355, the analysis of the Scopes Monkey Trial.The complete transcript of the 1925 Scopes trial.The History Channel short on the trial.Excerpt from the Civic Biology textbook that Scopes used.Bryan's final statement (that he didn't get to deliver to the court).Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

Dayton, Tennessee, catapulted into the national spotlight in 1925 after a young teacher challenged a state law banning the teaching of evolution, transforming the town into a chaotic carnival of ideas and fervent beliefs.  Re-live the spectacle as Clarence Darrow, a relentless advocate for scientific thought, squared off against William Jennings Bryan, the stalwart defender of religious tradition. Feel the tension as the courthouse brimmed with heated exchanges, each argument pushing the boundaries between faith and reason. Witness how Darrow's razor-sharp cross-examination exposed deep questions about literalism and learning, creating ripples that reverberated far beyond the courtroom.  Though Scopes was found guilty, the trial carved out a legacy of debate that echoes in America's dialogue on education and freedom to this day LINKS: Sign up for our newsletter so that you're the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams' other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you're looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram! Purchase the e-book. SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS: Kevin McGrath as Judge Raulston Ken Sutherland as Rev. Cartwright Scott Well as Clarence Darrow Jon Enge as Rev. J.P. Massingill Darren Aitken as Attorney Malone Troy Starr as Atty General Stewart Jud Pierce as Superintendent White Daniel Singer as William Jennings Bryan Evan Dicharry as The Appeals Court

Dayton, Tennessee, catapulted into the national spotlight in 1925 after a young teacher challenged a state law banning the teaching of evolution, transforming the town into a chaotic carnival of ideas and fervent beliefs.  Re-live the spectacle as Clarence Darrow, a relentless advocate for scientific thought, squared off against William Jennings Bryan, the stalwart defender of religious tradition. Feel the tension as the courthouse brimmed with heated exchanges, each argument pushing the boundaries between faith and reason. Witness how Darrow's razor-sharp cross-examination exposed deep questions about literalism and learning, creating ripples that reverberated far beyond the courtroom.  Though Scopes was found guilty, the trial carved out a legacy of debate that echoes in America's dialogue on education and freedom to this day LINKS: Sign up for our newsletter so that you're the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams' other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you're looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram! Purchase the e-book. SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS: Kevin McGrath as Judge Raulston Ken Sutherland as Rev. Cartwright Scott Well as Clarence Darrow Jon Enge as Rev. J.P. Massingill Darren Aitken as Attorney Malone Troy Starr as Atty General Stewart Jud Pierce as Superintendent White Daniel Singer as William Jennings Bryan Evan Dicharry as The Appeals Court Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#POTUS: What does populism do when it reaches the Oval Office? @ThadMcCotter @theamgreatness https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/16/winning-an-election-an-opportunity-not-an-end/ 1913 William Jennings Bryan

PREVIEW: GROVER CLEVELAND: Author Troy Senik, "A Man of Iron," reports that Cleveland fell out with the Democratic Party in his second term -- not following the populist fever that would bring forth William Jennings Bryan. More later. 1900 William Jenning Bryan.

POTUS: REMAINS OF THE ELECTION SURPRISE. RICHARD EPSTEIN, HOOVER 1912 WOODROW WILSON, WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

3/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1912 Woodrow Wilson launched and promoted by Willliam Jennings Bryan.

5/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Trial moved outdoors because of the heatwave --  and the courthouse  floor was sagging from the weight of the crowd.

8/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today.

7/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Bryan on the witness stand examined by Darrow in the heat.

6/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Clarence Darrow in Dayton

2/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 The Dayton drugstore table where the Scopes trial was hatched.

4/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Sunday service Dayton, Tennessee

1/8: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation Hardcover – August 13, 2024 by  Brenda Wineapple  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Faith-Democracy-Riveted-Nation/dp/0593229924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JDRqUc36UiUIH3eK1_Pqbjxg6Sx8dBlH9BsLvmHdHafp_9Muk2_yEUhSCVX__F0MdOA4DhC69ktDYCzLlsPHGTcm-frb_k2Hnexz13sMaJxDWfyq4IUe0ILOyiUrFYPU_NYz6u09C36A1AtGqgDqw-0-ZLbsGdLDtipkKF2KSkk07atZvK0AX5heVgt9YYHDgNjftDlcWA5itjSpDZyEvB8zB6lDdr4CX5yJWAy-aRc.53SKRbwc3rF4M4p-RAjIj8VWAu0wIY5LjLXsK3oVBwM&qid=1730836318&sr=1-1 The dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy / “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. Brenda Wineapple, the award-winning author of The Impeachers,explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. Darrow, a brilliant and controversial lawyer, said in his electrifying defense of Scopes that people should be free to think, worship, and learn. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, argued for the prosecution that evolution undermined the fundamental, literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, and hope. In Keeping the Faith, Wineapple takes us into the early years of the twentieth century—years of racism, intolerance, and world war—to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many of the fundamental values that define America, and that continue to divide Americans today. 1925 Scopes "Monket Trial" 

"Preview: Author Brenda Wineapple describes Darrow's surprise decision to call Bryan to the stand, and Bryan's daring acceptance of the challenge. More tonight." 1920 William Jennings Bryan

"Preview: 1925: Author Brenda Wineapple, 'Keeping the Faith,' recounts how the fledgling ACLU debated choosing defense attorneys for the Tennessee prosecution of the test Scopes case challenging the law banning the teaching of evolution in schools -- the notorious Scopes Monkey Trial that attracted both the famous Clarence Darrow and the more famous William Jennings Bryan to Dayton, Tennessee, in a heat wave. More tonight." 1925 Dayton center.

The 1925 Scopes Trial ostensibly featured the triumph of science over fundamentalist religion. Bob gives some surprising facts that may change your assessment, including long excerpts from Clarence Darrow's famous cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan.Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:The complete transcript of the 1925 Scopes trial.The History Channel short on the trial.Excerpt from the Civic Biology textbook that Scopes used.Was Jonah swallowed by a fish or a whale?Bryan's final statement (that he didn't get to deliver to the court).Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

Preview: Scopes Trial: Comment by author Brenda Wineapple, "Keeping the Faith," regarding the celebrity politician William Jennings Bryan, the Boy Orator of the Platte River, now in the last days of his life as he arrives in Dayton, Tennessee for the Scopes trial debating the theory of evolution in light of those who believe in a literal reading of the Bible. More in coming weeks. 1925 William Jennings Bryan

Brenda Wineapple calls them "two gladiators." The year was 1925. She writes that "the ubiquitous politician William Jennings Bryan and the criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow, each of them national celebrities for decades, were going into battle over God and science and the classroom and, not incidentally, over what it meant to be an American." Brenda Wineapple's latest book is titled "Keeping the Faith" and is about the Scopes Trial, held in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, which focused on the state law that prohibited the teaching of evolution in the schools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brenda Wineapple calls them "two gladiators." The year was 1925. She writes that "the ubiquitous politician William Jennings Bryan and the criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow, each of them national celebrities for decades, were going into battle over God and science and the classroom and, not incidentally, over what it meant to be an American." Brenda Wineapple's latest book is titled "Keeping the Faith" and is about the Scopes Trial, held in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, which focused on the state law that prohibited the teaching of evolution in the schools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, on the Christian History Almanac, we remember the “Prophet Statesman,” William Jennings Bryan, and his role in American political and religious life. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: When You Meet Jesus | Gospel Encounters Conference Pre-order: Hitchhiking with Prophets: A Ride Through the Salvation Story of the Old Testament by Chad Bird 30 Minutes in the NT on Youtube Remembering Rod Rosenbladt Encouragement for Motherhood Edited by Katie Koplin More from the hosts: Dan van Voorhis SHOW TRANSCRIPTS are available: https://www.1517.org/podcasts/the-christian-history-almanac CONTACT: CHA@1517.org SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Overcast Google Play FOLLOW US: Facebook Twitter Audio production by Christopher Gillespie (gillespie.media).

PREVIEW: #GROVER CLEVELAND: Conversation with author Troy Senik, A MAN OF IRON, re what went wrong for President Clevland in his second term-- and how the Democratic oarty turned away from him and toward the silver tongue oratory of William Jennings Bryan and his populist goals. A scenario either of the current two canddates may endure.  More tonight. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Iron-Turbulent-Improbable-Presidency/dp/1982140747?ref_=ast_author_dp#customerReviews 1890 on Oneida.

In the wake of the greatest economic depression in the country's history so far, the Democrats battle it out over the future of monetary policy. In the midst of the debate, former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan emerges as the Democrat Candidate. To win the election, Bryan will have to get the best of an affable Governor from Ohio with a message of hope for a suffering nation: William McKinley. *** To listen to the entire series—all 59 episodes—right now and ad-free, become a subscriber at IntoHistory.com, a channel of history podcasts made just for history lovers like you. Enjoy ad-free listening, early releases, bonus content and more, only available at IntoHistory.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices