Before the crusade: Evolution in American secondary education before 1920

Abstract

A massive popular crusade against evolutionary teaching in American public schools erupted during the twenties. This crusade appeared to break "like a summer thunderstorm" shortly after the First World War, approximately sixty years after Darwin first published his theory of natural selection and decades after most American scientists had come to accept some form of evolution. Although in retrospect the gathering storm clouds are apparent in the form of gradually spreading religious, political, and social conservatism, militant opposition to evolution was not an article of faith among the future crusaders prior to 1920.1 For example, a decade earlier, fundamentalist religious doctrines were articulated in a series of twelve widely distributed books entitled The Fundamentals. These books contained ninety different articles by a variety of conservative Christian spokesmen and addressed a wide range of subjects bearing on their beliefs. Evolution received scant attention in these books, and at least some of the comment was favorable.2 Even William Jennings Bryan, who became the