Overview

Who are America's creationists? What do they want? Do they truly believe Jesus rode around on dinosaurs, as sometimes depicted? Creationism USA reveals how common misconceptions about creationism have led Americans into a century of unnecessary culture-war histrionics about evolution education and creationism. Adam Laats argues that Americans do not have deep, fundamental disagreements about evolution - not about the actual science behind it and not in ways that truly matter to public policy. Laats asserts that Americans do, however, have significant disagreements about creationism. By describing the history of creationism and its many variations, Laats demonstrates that the real conflict about evolution is not between creationists and evolution. The true landscape of American creationism is far more complicated than headlines suggest. Creationism USA digs beyond those headlines to prove two fundamental facts about American creationism. First, almost all Americans can be classified as creationists of one type or another. Second, nearly all Americans (including self-identified creationists) want their children to learn mainstream evolutionary science. Taken together, these truths about American creationism point to a large and productive middle ground, a widely shared public vision of the proper relationship between schools, science, and religion. Creationism USA both explains the current state of America's battles over creationism and offers a nuanced yet straight-forward prescription to solve them.

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9780197516607

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Reviews

Creationism USA offers not only a lively and historically informed assessment of the culture wars surrounding creationism but also a nuanced and consistently insightful proposal for overcoming the obstacles to achieving a ceasefire. Nobody is better at telling the stories of the American struggles over evolution and nobody is better at helping us learn from them than Adam Laats. -- Glenn Branch, deputy director, National Center for Science Education This book makes an important and much-needed argument: most Americans are some variety of creationist; most Americans want their children to learn evolutionary theory; the creation-evolution battles are not really about science or religion; as a way to get beyond the ongoing culture war, public schools should teach everyone about evolutionary theory while keeping religious belief out of it. Creationism USA is classic Adam Laats - breezy and inviting writing style combined with excellent scholarship. This book matters, and it is refreshing to read a manuscript that has ideas for getting us beyond the culture wars. -- William Vance Trollinger, Jr, Professor of History, University of Dayton Creationism USA is an, informed, helpful, and optimistic analysis of America's culture war over origins. Emphasizing that most Americans share a deep theological commitment that God created the world, the book unpacks the political and cultural dimensions of the evolution controversy. Laats is a gifted writer and this is a valuable contribution to an important conversation too often dominated by superficial shouting. -- Karl Giberson, Professor of Science & Religion, Stonehill College

Author Information

Adam Laats is a historian interested in culture-war battles over religion and education. He taught middle school and high school for ten years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He currently teaches at Binghamton University (State University of New York). His previous books include Fundamentalist U: Keeping the Faith in American Higher Education, Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation, The Other School Reformers: Conservative Activism in American Education, and Fundamentalism and Education in the Scopes Era: God, Darwin, and the Roots of America's Culture Wars.

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