Many of the world's most-studied works of literature are deeply entwined with a significant social issue. Greenhaven's Social Issues in Literature series views those works through the lens of that issue, broadening students' understanding and supporting cross-curricular studies of literary masterworks. Each volume presents biographical information on the author, viewpoints on the social issue, and extensive resources for further research. This title offers an in-depth examination of freedom of thought as presented in Jerome Lawrence & Robert Edwin Lee's play Inherit the Wind, as well as contemporary perspectives on the issue. Written during the McCarthy era, the play dramatized the infamous Scopes trial, at times shifting the focus from freedom of thought to the theory of evolution. In the twenty-first century, the play brings renewed attention to religion in politics and education, and issues of individual freedom. - Publisher.