This article in American Realities tells the story of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1926. We learn about the various elements in the trial: the antagonists, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow; the town of Dayton, Tennessee; the issue of evolution; and the American impulses towards fundamentalism and modernity. Then we follow the course of the trial itself watching the interplay of all these elements as the lawyers argue about science, God, and human destiny. In the crucible of the Scopes Trial they and the townspeople of Dayton articulated the hopes and fears of Americans torn between the lure of science and the pull of tradition.