Professor Ed Larson will speak on Religion, Science, Politics and Scopes: Reflections on a Century of Cultural Warfare in America. 

Looking at what pulls Americans apart and what holds us together, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the ill-famed 1925 Tennessee Monkey Trial reflects on that trial and a century of accelerating cultural conflicts over religion and science in American politics, government, and society.

Ed Larson holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law and is a University Professor of History at Pepperdine University. Originally from Ohio with a PhD in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a law degree from Harvard, Larson has lectured on all seven continents in a single calendar year and taught as a visiting professor at Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, University of Melbourne, Leiden University, and the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the Pepperdine faculty, Larson taught for twenty years at the University of Georgia, where he chaired the History Department. Prior to becoming a professor, Larson practiced law in Seattle and served as counsel for the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC. He received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Ohio State University but still roots for the University of Wisconsin in football.

Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in History and numerous other awards for writing and teaching, Larson is the author or co-author of fourteen books and over one hundred published articles. His 2015 book, The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783–1789, was a New York Times Bestseller and resulted in Larson being invited to deliver the 2016 Supreme Court Historical Society lecture in Washington, give the annual Gaines Lecture at Mount Vernon, and serve as a featured presenter for the Library of Congress’s Madison Council event. His other books, which have been translated into over twenty languages, include An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science; A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign; and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. Larson’s articles have appeared in such varied publications as Nature, Atlantic Monthly, Science, Scientific American, Time, Wall Street Journal, American History, The Guardian, and dozens of law reviews. His latest book, American Inheritance, was published by W.W. Norton in 2023.

Campus community only, please.