It's been more than 70 years since Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan paced around in their shirt sleeves in a stifling Tennessee courtroom and debated the red-hot issue of evolution versus creation. Remarkably, the issue is still scorching in Kansas and in states from Texas to New Hampshire.

The Evolution Wars draws on history, science, and philosophy to examine the development of evolutionary thought through the past two and a half centuries. It focuses on the great debates that have engaged, divided, stimulated, and ultimately provoked scientists and others to ponder the origins of humankind, including the nineteenth-century clash over the nature of classification and debates about the fossil record, genetics, and human nature. Much attention is paid to external factors and the underlying motives of scientists. In these pages you will meet Charles Darwin's ebullient grandfather Erasmus, the contentious Frenchmen Georges Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, new creationist Phillip Johnson, the brilliant J. B. S. Haldane, and many other stars of the debates.

The Evolution Wars explores the ten greatest controversies surrounding evolution in world history, with emphasis on recent times, including:

• The infamous Scopes trial of the 1920s, which essentially put Darwin's theory of evolution on trial before the nation
• The search for human origins and speculation about the "missing link," spurred by the discovery of "Lucy"
• The debate surrounding the new theory of paleontology proposed by Stephen Jay Gould
• The rise of teaching "creation science" in public schools as a subject on a par with evolution

Although the author takes a strong stand on the side of evolution, he also shows respect for the viewpoint of those who disagree. Thus, the book is intellectually rewarding not only for evolutionists but also for opponents of evolution theory, especially those who want to see how one of the great ideas of Western civilization resonates through time, both within and without the scientific community.