A Gripping History Of The Battle Between Inconic Attorney Clarence Darrow And William Jennings Bryan In The Famous Scopes Monkey Trial, From The #1 New York Times Bestselling Autor Of The Russia Hoax. In 1925, high school substitute teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching the science of evolution to his class in violation of Tennessee's Butler Act. The arrest attracted the attention of the ACLU and renowned liberal attorney Clarence Darrow, who agreed to defend the schoolteacher against three-time presidential candidate and ardent anti-evolution activist William Jennings Bryan. The trial that followed became the biggest legal blockbuster of a generation, catapulting the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, into the national spotlight and raising fundatmental questions about science and religion in the public square, education, civil rights, and the ever-changing media landscape. Darrow's seminal defense of the freedom of speech helped form the legal bedrock on which our civil liberties depend today. Expertly researched, eye-opening, and stirring, The Trial of the Century calls upon our past to unite Americans in the defense of the free exchange of ideas, especially in the divided time.