Description
Book SynopsisIn Red Dynamite, Carl R. Weinberg argues that creationism''s tenacious hold on American public life depended on culture-war politics inextricably embedded in religion. Many Christian conservatives were convinced that evolutionary thought promoted immoral and even bestial social, sexual, and political behavior. The fruits of subscribing to Darwinism were, in their minds, a dangerous rearrangement of God-given standards and the unsettling of traditional hierarchies of power. Despite claiming to focus exclusively on science and religion, creationists were practicing politics. Their anticommunist campaign, often infused with conspiracy theory, gained power from the fact that the Marxist founders, the early Bolshevik leaders, and their American allies were staunch evolutionists.
Using the Scopes Monkey Trial as a starting point, Red Dynamite traces the politically explosive union of Darwinism and communism over the next century. Across thos
Trade Review
Splendid chronicle.
* Evolution: Education and Outreach *
[A]n important step in itself and something to which scholars of American religion and conservative politics should pay special attention.
* Church History Review *
Red Dynamite is an engaging and richly sourced narrative. It is especially relevant for historians of education studying science pedagogy, curricular backlash, textbook wars, and Christian homeschooling.
* American Educational History Journal *
Red Dynamite offers stunning new depth to a relatively familiar tale; this cogent work demonstrates just how interactive even seemingly very narrow ideological, spiritual, and religious beliefs can be with larger social, political, and cultural trends in American history.
* The Journal of American History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Belaboring Scopes
1. Lighting the Darwin Fuse
2. The Lamb-Dragon and The Devil's Poison
3. Blood Relationship, Bolshevism, and Whoopie Parties
4. The Wolf Pack and the Upas Tree
5. Beast Ancestry, Dangerous Triplets, and Damnable Heresies
6. Flood, Fruit, and Satan
7. Trees, Knees, and Nurseries
8. The Nightcrawler, the Wedge, and the Bloodiest Religion
Epilogue: The Baby Christian and the Dark Place
