UGA\u27S PULITZER-PRIZE WINNING PROFESSOR TO APPEAR ON COURT TV DOCUMENTARY

Friday, August 21, 1998 WRITER: Kathy R. Pharr, (706) 542-5172 CONTACT: Prof. Ed Larson, (706) 542-2660 UGA\u27S PULITZER-PRIZE WINNING PROFESSOR TO APPEAR ON COURT TV DOCUMENTARY ATHENS, Ga. - University of Georgia law and history professor Ed Larson, who won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for history with his book on the Scopes trial, will be featured prominently in the first episode of a new series on great trials in history premiering on COURT TV next week. Larson served as a consultant and as a quoted authority for the documentary, to be broadcast at 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday, August 25. (COURT TV is offered by Intermedia Cable in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties on Channel 48.) This show will be geared toward the unfolding drama of the trial and the battling legal strategies that developed more so than its history, said Larson. Larson spent three days this spring working with the producer of the documentary in Dayton, Tennessee -- the site of the 1925 courtroom showdown which pitted legal titans Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan in a heated debate over evolution and creationism. Larson says he has also fielded constant calls from the production company in the months following his on-site assistance. Larson\u27s Pulitzer Prize, awarded in May for the book, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America\u27s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, is the first won by a sitting faculty member at the University of Georgia. An authority on science history and the relationship between law and science, Larson has written dozens of articles and reviews, presented more than 40 lectures at professional gatherings, and given more than 100 radio and television interviews, with appearances on NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, National Public Radio, Voice of America and the History Channel. Larson, a member of the UGA faculty since 1987, holds a law degree from Harvard and two degrees from the University of Wisconsin - a master\u27s in history and a doctorate in history of science. He earned a bachelor\u27s degree with honors in history from Williams College