The tragic Lindbergh kidnapping case, the trial of "thrill killers" Leopold and Loeb, the espionage prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg, and the O.J. Simpson double-murder case were all famous trials and media spectacles in their day. But the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, as the press dubbed it, manifested an epic cultural struggle in America between traditional religious beliefs and free speech and academic liberty. At stake was the right to teach evolution in public schools even though it might conflict with the story of man's creation hi the Bible. A Dayton, Tennessee, courtroom served as the dramatic setting for a fierce debate over science, faith, intellectual enlightenment, and the power of ideas. Journalists the world over converged on the small town to witness a young schoolteacher stand trial, fighting for the indispensable proposition that no one should be told how to think. In the pre-television age, it was the first trial to be broadcast live on radio to a riveted nationwide audience.

Two of our country's best-known orators faced off in a titanic clash as celebrated defense attorney Clarence Darrow called to the witness stand three-time presidential candidate and fundamentalist leader William Jennings Bryan, a member of the prosecution team. It was a daring and consequential move. The New York Times described Darrow's withering cross-examination as "the most amazing court scene in Anglo-Saxon history." The stunning outcome foreshadowed the fraught culture wars that would shape America throughout the century and beyond. It was truly The Trial of the Century.