Wednesday, October 16, 2024—In 1925 the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” challenging a Tennessee ban on teaching evolution in public schools, pitted urban “elites” against rural “populists,” modernity against tradition, science against faith—and sounded the opening bell of the American culture wars. Wrestling with the same historical moment, four foundational masterpieces of our national literature made their debuts: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, and “The New Negro,” the groundbreaking essay by Alain Locke that ignited the Harlem Renaissance.
Join acclaimed historian Brenda Wineapple, author of Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation (Random House, 2024) for a fascinating new perspective on a watershed year and four iconic works you’ll never read the same way again.
We thank our promotional partner: the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics & Writers.
