The Devil in Dover

<b>Winner of the Ida and Studs Terkel Prize<br></b><br><span><b>A brilliant account of the controversial 2005 legal battle between evolution and creationism in public education “by a first-rate journalist” (Howard Zinn).</b></span><br> <br>In 2004 the School Board of Dover Pennsylvania decided to require its ninth-grade biology students to learn intelligent design-a pseudoscientific theory positing evidence of an intelligent creator. In a case that recalled the infamous 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial eleven parents sued the school board. When the case wound up in federal court before a President George W. Bush-appointed judge local journalist Lauri Lebo had a front-row seat.<br> <br>Destined to become required reading for a generation of journalists scientists and science teachers as well as for anyone concerned about the separation of church and state <i>The Devil in Dover</i> is Lebo's acclaimed account of religious intolerance First Amendment violations and an assault on American science education. Lebo skillfully probes the background of the case introducing the plaintiffs the defendants the lawyers and a parade of witnesses along with Judge John E. Jones III who would eventually condemn the school board’s decision as one of “breathtaking inanity.”<br> <br>With the antievolution battle having moved to the state level—and the recent passage of state legislation that protects the right of schools to teach alternatives to evolution—Lebo’s work is more necessary than ever.<br> <br>“Lebo courageously exhibits the highest standards in intellectual honesty and journalistic ethos.” —<i>Daily Kos</i><br> <br>“An unapologetic indictment of intelligent design fundamentalist Christianity and American journalism’s insistence on objectivity in the face of clear untruths.” —<i>Columbia Journalism Review</i><br>