Epicurus.com - Inherit the Wind

	List Price: $9.95 Our Price: $9.95 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 812.54 EAN: 9780345501035 ISBN: 0345501039 Label: Ballantine Books Manufacturer: Ballantine Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 144 Publication Date: 2007-03-20 Publisher: Ballantine Books Release Date: 2007-03-20 Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editorial Reviews: One of the most moving and meaningful plays in American theatre--based on the famed Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, in which a Tennessee teacher was tried for teaching evolution--now on Broadway starring Tony Award® Winners Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy, and Directed by Tony Award® Winner Doug Hughes The accused was a slight, frightened man who had deliberately broken the law. His trial was a Roman circus, the chief gladiators being the two great legal giants of the century. Locked in mortal combat, they bellowed and roared imprecations and abuse. The spectators sat uneasily in the sweltering heat with murder in their hearts, barely able to restrain themselves. At stake was the freedom of every American. “Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee were classic Broadway scribes who knew how to crank out serious plays for thinking Americans. . . . Inherit the Wind is a perpetually prescient courtroom battle over the legality of teaching evolution. . . . We’re still arguing this case–all the way to the White House.� –Chicago Tribune “Powerful . . . a crackling good courtroom play . . . [that] provides two of the juiciest roles in American theater.� –Copley News Service “[This] historical drama . . . deserves respect.� –The Columbus Dispatch
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Still relevant Comment: It was written decades ago, inspired on a famous trial that had taken place years earlier, yet Inherit the Wind feels as powerful and relevant today as, I imagine, did when it first opened on Broadway. That's a testament to the fantastic writing, of course, but unfortunately also shows how little we've learned since then. Customer Rating: Summary: Recomended Comment: Based upon the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, TN, Inherit the Wind looks at the trial as a battle over the suppression of ideas that is reminiscent of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. However, it also includes some interesting thoughts reagarding fundamentalist interpretations of the bible. Some of these were taken from the actual testimony from the trial, although the book does take some liberties with history in order to make its point. Its themes are universal and the book/play definitely brings up some ideas that are still worthy of consideration today. Customer Rating: Summary: A Play about Faith and Reason Comment: This script of a play, inspired by the Scopes trial, captivated my attention. It hightlights the zealous bigotry of those who refuse to question their own beliefs while being centered around figures who dared to dabble with a new theory concerning the origins of life. Customer Rating: Summary: A Timeless Play As Meaningful Today As When It Was Written Comment: Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews. My review of "Inherit the Wind" is concise and to the point. Oh, I get it. That person is a fanatic, and he or she doesn't like that state of mind exposed. This explosive drama is a re-enactment of one of the twentieth century's greatest courtroom dramas--the 1925 Scopes Trail. The collision of William Jennings Bryan (a religious fundamentalist) and Clarence Darrow (an agnostic) is wonderfully enacted. Scopes, a high-school teacher, was put on trail for teaching evolution. The preacher's daughter is in love with Scopes, and the sparks fly over the conflict. The preacher's religious fanaticism threatens to destroy his own family. Thus, the line from Proverbs 11:29: "He that troubleth his own house Shall inherit the wind." I would also highly recommend Eric Hoffer's classic little book, "The True Believer." A must for educated readers. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Perennial Classics) Customer Rating: Summary: Still Relevant Comment: In a world that is still divided over the wide range dilemma of religion, Inherit the Wind is brilliant in the manner where it analyzes its complexity. The premise is relatively simple. Based on the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1945, the plot charges forward when a young teacher, Cates, breaks a local rule banning the teaching of evolution in the classroom. He is arrested, and placed on trial within a not-so-welcoming town. Yet the real drama takes center stage when the trial moves beyond violating a local rule. Matthew Harrison, the national fundamentalist hero, views this trial as an opportunity to gain popularity across fundamentalist Christianity and decides to take on the case. His staunch orthodox is intensely rivaled by Henry Drummond, the avid atheist set on transforming the small town's approach to the bible and opposing view points. The novel's authors, Lawrence and Lee, take great care to expand the issue over the theory evolution to a broader context of the various forms of biblical interpretation. Lawrence and Lee bring up dilemmas such as whether or not the bible and religion itself have the capacity to correlate. The idea that the authors expanded the issue of evolution to a higher complexity focusing on biblical interpretation is in my opinion the greatest portion of the play, and deserves the reader's attention throughout. Yet, while the variety of opinions were equally considered in the plot, they aren't the only portions that add to the novel's complexity and beauty. The famous political leaders themselves, Harrison and Drummond, are given traits that give justice to the men that they were based on. William Jennings Bryan, Harrison's character, was known to the public in the same form that Harrison was portrayed. Darrow, represented by Drummond, was a passionate atheist concerned for the law. The authors made it a point to stay true to the politicians' personas while at the same time steering the play away from a typical historical representation. While in my opinion, the play had a liberal bias, it in no way went out to outright ridicule a conservative interpretation. What it did instead was demand that the general public remain open minded. It argues that people of all religious and political ideologies come together and discuss differences that in no way impede others from freely practicing what they believe. This in combination with the criticisms of our nation's justice system garner it the raves it deserves. More Reviews