A Religious Orgy in Tennessee: A Reporter’s Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial by H.L. Mencken (PDF)

Description

“The native American Voltaire, the enemy of all puritans, the heretic in the Sunday school, the one-man demolition crew of the genteel tradition.” —Alistair Cooke Fiercely intelligent, scathingly honest, and hysterically funny, H.L. Mencken’s coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial so galvanized the nation that it eventually inspired a Broadway play and the classic Hollywood movie Inherit the Wind. Mencken’ s no-nonsense sensibility is still exciting: his perceptive rendering of the courtroom drama; his piercing portrayals of key figures Scopes, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan; his ferocious take on the fundamentalist culture surrounding it all—including a raucous midnight trip into the woods to witness a secret “holy roller” service. Shockingly, these reports have never been gathered together into a book of their own—until now. A Religious Orgy In Tennessee includes all of Mencken’s reports for The Baltimore Sun, The Nation, and The American Mercury. It even includes his coverage of Bryan’s death just days after the trial—an obituary so withering Mencken was forced by his editors to rewrite it, angering him and leading him to rewrite it yet again in a third version even less forgiving than the first. All three versions are included, as is a complete transcript of the trial’s most legendary exchange: Darrow’s blistering cross-examination of Bryan. With the rise of “intelligent design,” H.L. Mencken’ s work has never seemed more unnervingly timely—or timeless.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author H.L. Mencken is one of American history’s foremost journalists. Writing from the turn of the century until the late 1940’s for the Baltimore Sun newspaper, he was known for a savage wit, an erudite if salty language, and an iconoclastic outlook that saw through politicians and fads with fearless abandon. He died in 1956.Editor Art Winslow writes frequently for the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Bookforum, and was, for many years, Literary Editor and Executive Editor of The Nation.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I’m not especially an admirer of Mencken. He bothers me for much the same reason that Oscar Wilde does: both have a tendency to shoot for the biting witticism, the memorable bon mot, rather than depth. They’re sometimes fun to read, but they rarely serve up anything one can sink one’s teeth into.Mencken’s A Religious Orgy in Tennessee, a collection of columns about the Scope trial written for “The Baltimore Sun,” “The Nation,” and “The American Mercury,” is more than just entertaining, though. It offers a look at early twentieth-century Christian fundamentalism (Mencken frequently, and incorrectly, calls it “evangelicalism”) that is chilling not only for its own intrinsic stupidity–at one point, Mencken cites a woman fundamentalist who boasts that she has no books in her home and that she hates all books but the Bible (p. 54)–but also because it clearly demonstrates that fundamentalism than and fundamentalism now are essentially the same. The fundamentalist hatred of learning, the dogmatic zeal to condemn any theory or opinion not authenticated by scripture, the parochial refusal to look beyond sectarian norms: everything that Mencken encountered in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 can be attributed to American fundamentalism today. The only difference is that today’s fundamentalism is much more organized and media-savvy.Three chapters in particular stand out: Chapter 2, in which Mencken profiles the fundamentalist mind (calling it “Homo neanderthalensis”); Chapter 7, in which he describes a late night revival; and Chapter 16, in which he defends freedom of thought. The first of these three is especially fine, while the second is one of the best pieces of on-the-spot reporting Mencken ever wrote.This edition is troublesome. There are numerous typos in the text, and explanatory footnotes for names dropped by Mencken–names that would’ve been familiar to his 1925 readers but are mysterious today–are at best haphazard. But for all that, these columns are well worth reading. They have far more than mere historical interest–and that’s profoundly disturbing._______* p. 111

⭐”The Scopes trial, from the start, has been carried out in a manner exactly fitted to the anti-evolutionist law and the simian imbecility under it. There hasn’t been the slightest pretense to decorum.” (p. 92)Doubtless anyone reading this review is familiar with the Scopes trial. Similarly, I am sure that those here are familiar with H.L. Mencken, the Baltimore Sun journalist who played a huge part in the PR of the Scopes trial. It was said of Mencken, of course, that if the Scopes trial had never existed, he would have felt need to invent it.Here, in one volume, are all of Mencken’s Baltimore Sun writings “covering” the Scopes trial. Why do I enclose the word “covering” in quotation marks? Because as another reviewer noted, there was suprisingly little coverage of the trial in these pages. Most of the book is taken up in rhetorical rants agaisnt fundamentalist Christianity, and most of the rest is used to convey Mencken’s contradictory views about the social climate of Dayton, TN (where he oscillates between suggesting that the people are suprisingly decent to calling Dayton a “ninth-rate country town.”) Anyone hoping to learn about the Scopes trial will find little here. the book is a good supplement to one’s knowledge of the Scopes trial, but not a good educational tool.Do not get me wrong. As one who shares Mencken’s disdain for Fundamentalist Christianity (and any attempt at an anti-evolution law), I found his verbal jabs and witticisms delightful. It was also a delight to read the complete transcript (the last section of the book) where Clarence Darrow dismantles William Bryan’s Biblical literalism. But I will warn prospective readers that as most of the writing in this book is five-to-seven page editorial pieces, they can be rather repititious and (towards the end) monotonous.In the end, I will reccomend this book to those who, like myself, are already quite knowledged about the events of the Scopes trial. As such, a one-volume collection of Mencken’s writings on the trial offers a welcome supplement. If you are new to the trial, start elsewhere. This collection offers far more in commentary and rhetoric than reporting.

⭐If the reader is looking for a play-by-play account of the Scopes Trial, then you’ve selected the wrong book. I recommend “Summer for the Gods” by Edward L. Larson. Mr. Mencken’s dispatches were his arguments about the folly of the proceedings, William Jennings Bryan, the religious “yokels,” and the pretzel logic used to refute evolution. These columns are well-reasoned works of metaphorical art. This small jewel compiles all his editorials concerning the trial as well as over a dozen B&W photos and the full court transcript exchange between Bryan and Clarence Darrow. (Be prepared. Bryan comes across as a confused dunderhead.) It even has Mencken’s nasty, no-holds-barred obituary about Bryan. Even over 80 years later and I’m still shocked at the viciousness of the author’s attack on a person who wasn’t alive to defend himself. But to understand why Mencken took such an approach, please read the outstanding biography “Mencken:The American Iconoclast” by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers. People who are insecure and hate anything that questions or ridicules their beliefs should stay far away from this wonderful book. You’ll just blow a blood vessel or two. All other readers should quickly get their hands on a copy. Mr. Mencken’s pieces are still very relevant today.

⭐Inherit the Wind provides the same information in an entertaining movie, so just watch the movie. I enjoyed the Spencer Tracy version.

⭐Short account of the scopes ‘monkey’ trial by a leading witness and Journalist of the day. Remarkably respectful of the local people in the media circus and this test case for the absurdity of banning the teaching of evolution as scientific theory. Creationism won the day in this one sided local trial, which made Tennessee the laughing stock of the US and the educated part of the world outside the one horse town of Dayton.

⭐A witness to the infamous monkey trials, this book reads as a diary of events as the trial continued with cutting remarks made about the prosecution counsel. Definitely not unbiased but the reporting is top-notch, my favorite part was when the christian backed prosecution argued the point that man was not a mammal. Brilliant.

⭐From 21 January, my advice is to drink. Heavily. Although I don’t think there’s enough booze in the world …

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