The coverage of this book focuses on the people, places, court cases and principal points of contention around the evolutionism and creationism debate in America. This is not a new area of vigorous social discussion, and thus this book covers both historical and contemporary aspects. As might be anticipated, while the bulk of the book is, by necessity, US‐centric, the reader will find significant elements examining the contributions and influences beyond America's borders.
The work is well prefaced with information and tables. It opens with an alphabetical list of entries, revealing the majority of individual entries are biographical. This is something that the preface acknowledges as an intentional linking of personalities, ideologies and scientific discovery within the debate. A listing of illustrations, annotated with image captions, follows. For the most part the biographical sketches and other entries are of a length commensurate with their significance in this field. Coverage of more notable figures extends over a number of pages, while more minor characters are restricted to a paragraph or two. This careful balancing act allows for coverage of hundreds of personalities.
Individual entries are largely structured as chronological essays on the subject's life followed by further examination of their contributions to the debate. Unlike most multi‐author reference books, the restriction of this work to just two authors allows a readable style to be maintained throughout. As such, the book could be read cover‐to‐cover as a complete text or used as a standard reference work. It should also be noted that any author bias to one side or the other of the debate is unnoticeable. Entries for non‐US people may be a shorter than expected, doubtlessly a result of the work's focus; though it may be arguable that most international personalities do receive appropriate coverage. Indeed, such is the focus on people that some readers may wish for an expansion on the other aspects of the debate. However, these are both minor criticisms.
Black and white illustrations and photographs, 82 in all, appear throughout the book. All are reproduced clearly and are appropriately captioned. Cross‐referencing between entries is not explicit in the text, although using the table of contents or page headings the reader can swiftly locate entries. A very detailed index spanning 24 pages is included at the end of the book. References here are not solely limited to entry headings, but also include significant concepts within each entry.
Unusually for a reference book this work is a fascinating historical insight into the personalities and debates of creationism vs evolution in the USA. Anyone with even a passing interest in the subject would gain much from a perusal or more through examination. As a whole the work is readily accessible to those unfamiliar with the aspects and concepts covered. This book would be a suitable purchase for scholarly or public libraries alike seeking to augment their evolution, theological or sociological collections with an intelligent and well written work.
