CONGRATULATIONS SENIOR FELLOW ED LARSON FOR PULLING DOWN A PULITZER FOR BEST HISTORY BOOK!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
April 1998
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For all the latest news point your browser to http://www.discovery.org/hotmail.html

Discovery Institute Press Release
Press Contacts:Rob Crowther (206)292-0401 xt.107
Release Date: April 15, 1998

Discovery Senior Fellow, Ed Larson, wins Pulitzer Prize for his book on Scopes Trial

Discovery Institute Senior Fellow, Edward J. Larson, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the best work of history for his 1997 book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. Larson directs Discovery's research on science, medicine and law.

Summer for the Gods has been widely praised since its release last summer, and Larson has been involved in the making of a History Channel special on the colorful Scopes Trial controversy and its effects on education, science and religion.

In Summer for the Gods, Larson contends that the Scopes Trial come down to us mainly through the play of the 1950s (and film of the 1960), Inherit the Wind, which is great theater but poor history. Using new archival material, Larson describes a debate with far more intellectual gravitas than the play would lead one to expect. The book also reveals how the trial itself originated as a publicity stunt, perhaps the first of its kind.

The consequences of the Scopes Trial for public policy today are described by Larson, including the way such events are taught in schools and the way the legal system has adopted and adapted Darwinian concepts of causality in crime and punishment.

Assisted suicide is the subject of Larson's next book due to be published by Intervarsity Press in June of this year. His other books include The Continuing Evolution Debate; Sex, Race and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South; Trial and Error: The American Controversy over Creation and Evolution (1985, expanded edition 1989); and Euthanasia: Spiritual, Medical, and Legal Issues in Terminal Health Care (1988, with Beth Spring).

Larson, divides his time between Athens, G.A., where he teaches law and history at the University of Georgia, and his full-time home in Stanwood, WA, and is often a lecturer at Discovery Institute luncheons and conferences.

Discovery Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy think tank based in Seattle, WA dealing with national and international affairs. For more information browse Discovery's website at http://www.discovery.org or call (206)292-0401.

# 30 #

Copyright 1998 Discovery Institute. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

This data file may be reproduced in its entirety for non-commercial use.
A return link to the Access Research Network web site would be appreciated.

Page development by Premier Publications
for Access Research Network,
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

5.7.98