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Brendan (History Nerds United)'s Reviews > Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation
Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation
by
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When you have an excellent author like Brenda Wineapple tackling one of the most famous trials in American history, then it is as close to a slam dunk as possible. However, even the best miss every now and again. Unfortunately, Keeping the Faith is one of those misses.
The book is ostensibly about the Scopes Monkey Trial where a Tennessee law criminalizing the teaching of evolution was challenged. However, the trial doesn't even begin to take shape until about halfway through the book. The first half is devoted a little bit to defense counsel Clarence Darrow and a lot to the prosecution's William Jennings Bryan. On the face of it, this makes perfect sense. What better way to set up the head to head battle of two cultural heavyweights than by giving a full explanation of who they are and what makes them tick.
The problem becomes how Wineapple chooses to apportion coverage. Bryan gets a lot more attention and it is mostly to denigrate him as a racist Christian fundamentalist. To be clear, he basically was. The problem is not the characterization but the extensive amount of time Wineapple spends on this point. Darrow disappears almost entirely from the narrative for a large portion of it and the trial didn't even start yet.
Wineapple also adds in extraneous subjects. She spends way too much time on the Ku Klux Klan when they do not figure at all in the Scopes Trial. They seem to be in the book because they align significantly with Bryan's views but Bryan was not in the KKK (even Wineapple states this). Aimee Semple McPherson shows up briefly and then disappears.
By the time the trial comes along, I was frustrated. First, because it took so long to get there. Second, because Wineapple spent so much time making Bryan look like a small, diminished, and weak person, that the showdown with Darrow loses all narrative tension. I didn't expect this because the author is an amazing writer. Wineapple's The Impeachers is one of my favorite books and is exceptional from beginning to end. And her writing here is never bad. You couldn't drop in on a single page and say there is anything wrong with it. But once you zoom out and look at what the book is supposed to be, you can't help but feel like the scope (pun intended!) got too big for this story to feel cohesive.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Random House.)
The book is ostensibly about the Scopes Monkey Trial where a Tennessee law criminalizing the teaching of evolution was challenged. However, the trial doesn't even begin to take shape until about halfway through the book. The first half is devoted a little bit to defense counsel Clarence Darrow and a lot to the prosecution's William Jennings Bryan. On the face of it, this makes perfect sense. What better way to set up the head to head battle of two cultural heavyweights than by giving a full explanation of who they are and what makes them tick.
The problem becomes how Wineapple chooses to apportion coverage. Bryan gets a lot more attention and it is mostly to denigrate him as a racist Christian fundamentalist. To be clear, he basically was. The problem is not the characterization but the extensive amount of time Wineapple spends on this point. Darrow disappears almost entirely from the narrative for a large portion of it and the trial didn't even start yet.
Wineapple also adds in extraneous subjects. She spends way too much time on the Ku Klux Klan when they do not figure at all in the Scopes Trial. They seem to be in the book because they align significantly with Bryan's views but Bryan was not in the KKK (even Wineapple states this). Aimee Semple McPherson shows up briefly and then disappears.
By the time the trial comes along, I was frustrated. First, because it took so long to get there. Second, because Wineapple spent so much time making Bryan look like a small, diminished, and weak person, that the showdown with Darrow loses all narrative tension. I didn't expect this because the author is an amazing writer. Wineapple's The Impeachers is one of my favorite books and is exceptional from beginning to end. And her writing here is never bad. You couldn't drop in on a single page and say there is anything wrong with it. But once you zoom out and look at what the book is supposed to be, you can't help but feel like the scope (pun intended!) got too big for this story to feel cohesive.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Random House.)
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Reading Progress
June 5, 2024
–
Started Reading
June 5, 2024
– Shelved
June 8, 2024
–
Finished Reading
