Edward J. Larson
Larson at the 2015National Book Festival
Born	(1953-09-21)September 21, 1953 (age 72) Mansfield, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater	Williams College Harvard University University of Wisconsin–Madison
Genre	History of science
Notable awards	Pulitzer Prize for History

Edward John Larson (born September 21, 1953)^[1] is an American historian and legal scholar. He is university professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law atPepperdine University. He was formerlyHerman E. Talmadge Chair of Law andRichard B. Russell Professor of American History at theUniversity of Georgia.^[2] He continues to serve as a senior fellow of the University of Georgia's Institute of Higher Education, and is currently a professor atPepperdine School of Law, where he teaches several classes including "Property for the 1Ls".

Larson was born inMansfield, Ohio, and attended Mansfield public schools. He graduated fromWilliams College and received hisJ.D. fromHarvard University and his Ph.D. in the history of science from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison.

Larson has lectured on topics in the history of science, religion, and law at universities across the United States and in Canada, China, Britain, Australia, and South America. The author of books and articles dealing with voyages of scientific exploration, he has also given lectures at natural history museums and on cruise boats. His articles have appeared inNature,Scientific American,The Nation,American History,Time, and various academic history and law journals.

Larson received the 1998Pulitzer Prize for History for his bookSummer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion.^[2] The book argues thatInherit the Wind (both theplay and themovie) misrepresented the actualScopes Trial. Unlike in the play and movie, in which reason and tolerance triumph over religiously motivated, unsophisticated anti-evolutionists, Larson's book portrays the trial as an opening salvo in an enduring twentieth-century cultural war involving powerful national forces in science, religion, law and politics. "Indeed," he concludes in the book, "the issues raised by the Scopes trial and legend endure precisely because they embody the characteristically American struggle between individual liberty and majoritarian democracy, and cast it in the timeless debate over science and religion."^[3]

In 2004 Larson received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters fromThe Ohio State University. He held theFulbright Program's John Adams Chair in American Studies in 2000-01 and participated in theNational Science Foundation's 2003 Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. He was a founding fellow of theInternational Society for Science and Religion.

In 2005 Larson was interviewed byJon Stewart onThe Daily Show on evolution alongsideWilliam Dembski andEllie Crystal.^[4] Frequently interviewed on American television and radio, Larson has also appeared multiple times onC-SPAN, including as a featured guest onBooknotes;PBS, including as a historian onNova andAmerican Experience;NPR, including as a featured guest onFresh Air withTerry Gross,The Diane Rehm Show, andTalk of the Nation - Science Friday; andHistory (U.S. TV channel). He has a course on the history of the theory of evolution withThe Teaching Company. Larson received the Richard Russell Teaching Award from the University of Georgia and was a charter member of the university's Teaching Academy.

Dr. Larson is a former Fellow at Seattle'sDiscovery Institute but according to an article inThe New York Times by Jodi Wilgoren, “...left in part because of its drift to the right.”^[5] According to science writerChris Mooney, Larson joined the institute "prior to its antievolutionist awakening."^[6] At the time, Larson lived in Washington state and the Seattle-based Discovery Institute dealt with Northwest regional issues. In a talk at thePew Forum entitled "The Biology Wars: The Religion, Science and Education Controversy", Larson said "Behe has never developed his arguments for intelligent design in peer-reviewed science articles."^[7]

• Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters. W. W. Norton & Company. 2025.ISBN 978-1324078975.
• American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795. W. W. Norton & Co. 2023.ISBN 978-0393882209.^[8][9]
• Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership. William Morrow. 2020.ISBN 978-0062880154.
• To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, The Race to the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration. Mariner Books. 2018.ISBN 978-0062564474.^[10]
• The Return of George Washington. William Morrow. 2014.ISBN 978-0062248671.
• An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2011.ISBN 978-0300154085.^[11]
• A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign. New York: Free Press, 2007.ISBN 978-0743293174.
• The Creation-Evolution Debate: Historical Perspectives. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 2007.ISBN 978-0820331065.
• Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory. Random House Publishing Group. 2006 [2004].ISBN 978-1588365385..
• Evolution's Workshop: God and Science on the Galapagos Islands. New York: Basic Books and London: Penguin, 2001.ISBN 978-0465038114.
• The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia. (editor), with Gary B. Ferngren and Darrel W. Amundsen, Routledge, June 13, 2000.ISBN 978-0815316565
• Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. Basic Books. 2008 [1997].ISBN 978-0786721931.^[12]
• Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.ISBN 978-0801855115.
• Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985, 1989 (expanded edition), 2003 (updated edition).ISBN 978-0195154719.^[13][14]

• 1998Pulitzer Prize
• 2014California Book Awards Nonfiction Finalist forThe Return of George Washington^[15]
• 2017NCSE Friend of Darwin Award^[16]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toEdward J. Larson.

Wikiquote has quotations related toEdward J. Larson.

• Pepperdine University biography
• Appearances onC-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Larson onSummer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, June 28, 1998.
• Edward Larson interview on Counterpoint Radio with Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities at the University of Memphis.

• 1953 births
• Living people
• American historians of science
• Harvard Law School alumni
• Members of the International Society for Science and Religion
• Pepperdine University faculty
• Pulitzer Prize for History winners
• University of Georgia faculty
• University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
• Williams College alumni

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• People appearing on C-SPAN