Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society (Hardcover)

by Clarence Darrow (Author), S. T. Joshi (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) became one of America's most famous attorneys, at the center of momentous trials, including his 1924 defense of Leopold and Loeb and his defense of Darwinian principles in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial." Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society collects, for the first time, Darrow's thoughts on his three main preoccupations. His thoughts on social issues, especially on religious fundamentalism, are uncannily prescient.

About the Author
- The editor, S.T. Joshi, who lives in Seattle, is the author and editor of many crossover books. He speak at conferences, such as his 2004 appearance before the Washington, D.C., Press Club to promote Mencken's America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ohio University Press; 1 edition (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821416324
• ISBN-13: 978-0821416327
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #836,492 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe the greatest attorney in American history, October 21, 2005

By	Charles M. Nobles (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) is perhaps the most famous, maybe even greatest, attorney in American history. His defense of Darwinian principles in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925 resonates even today and his views on the dangers of religious fundamentalism are as relevant today as when he proffered them. This book of essays and social criticism touches on issues such as women's suffrage, Prohibition, criminal psychology, science, capital punishment, and religion. This book will get your juices flowing regardless of your political or philosophical views.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oral Arguments Turned Into Essays for Posterity., January 8, 2006

By	Betty Burks "Betty L. Burks" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

So much has been written about Clarence Darrow who died in 1938, one might wonder what else could be said about "The Great Defender." He had been born in Ohio four years before the beginning of the Civil War and died a year before the beginning of WWII. More and more in this information age, educators are finding previously unpublished works of those who were prolific; these "essays" mainly were oral arguments or debates given by a lawyer whose 1924 and 1925 high-profile notorious cases made him a national figure.

As far as the editor of this volume can tell, manuscripts for them don't exist; thus, this additional philosophy of his may not be new but it shows that "the totality of his literary work is far from insignificant." This is an attempt to unite these lectures on politics, law, his views on religion and society, and particularly his philosophic views.

He was considered the most popular and controversial public speaker in the United States. His relentless cross-examination of the opposing lawyer in the Tennessee Scopes trial, William Jennings Bryan, showed the man who "had rarely compromised his principles, however unpopular they may have been, over his half-century of public life." His philosophy and style of presentation revealed a quiet dignity at the core of a man better known for "provoking Americans during an era of unprecendented tumult."

His book, FARMINGTON (1904), though written as a novel about John Smith was actually autobiographical and covered his young years. "Children tell the truth as naturally as they breathe, and it is only the stupidity and brutality of parents and teachers that drive them to tell lies. In high society and low, parents lie to children much oftener than children lie to parents; it would not occur to a child to lie unless someone made him feel the need of doing so. The common moral precepts were always taught by rule. We must obey our parents, and speak the truth. Just why we should do either was not made clear, although the penalty of neglect was ever there. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that children need not be taught to tell the truth. The fact is, parents do not teach them to tell the truth, but to lie."

As defense lawyer in the Scopes trial about teaching evolution in the public schools (now the controversy is to teach intelligent design instead), he had this to say: "Look at man and look at an ape; man thinks; an ape does not. There isn't a scientist in the world who does not know better than that. Why, even Bryan knew better than that. An ape does think. I have seen human beings that thought less. Every animal thinks, just the same as a man; generally less, sometimes more. There is some difference between an ape and a man, of course. A few lessons in evolution would help him out on that."

"Men will argue that they did not come from the ape. Well, if they didn't, a lot of them should [have]. In every way, they look like an ape; they act like an ape...it is perfectly obvious where they came from. Human man is little better than the ape. We might possibility get a good sport out of the human race, one that is worthwhile. It could certainly stand a good deal of improvement, a great deal."

Some writers trace Darrow's stand against capital punishment to his "boyhood terror ast seeing a Civil War soldier buried." Being a lawyer brought him close enough to those on death row to have strong opinions. "There is nothing so unequal and unfair as capital punishment. Only the poor are put to death. No facts can be produced by anyone to show that the death penalty ever lessened murders. Crime and poverty and ignorance go together, as part of the inheritance of the defective and the victims of circumstances. No one can put himself in another's place. To do this he must have not only the same outside surroundings, but the same structure. For this reason no one can fairly judge another."

This collection of previously unpublished essays cover a forty-year period in Darrow's busy life. Two major compilations, ATTORNEY FOR THE DAMNED (1957) AND VERDICTS OUT OF COURT (1963), show that he had plenty to say on any and every subject in his world. He was a busy thinker. "A lawyer first and a writer second, he nonetheless left behind a succession of treatises whose provocative content still challenges us. Darrow, a self-proclaimed rebel who sided, both intellectually and emotionally, with the minority, remains a figure to contend with."

"He was a man who, while retaining his core beliefs over a lifetime, learned from his mistakes and gained an insight both into himself and into his society that only age, experience, and struggle can bring. And at the end, he could rightly say that he had made a difference, and a difference for the better."

5.0 out of 5 stars Clarence Darrow, September 22, 2007

By	Phyllis M. Newnham "P.N." (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am interested in Clarence Darrow and I have been happy with my purchase. The book was in excellent condition and the delivery time excellent. The content of the book is challenging and I am now engrossed in studying it.