When the Catholic Church put Galileo on trial for his heretic views, man's position in the Universe was at stake. When schoolteacher John Scopes entered a Tennessee courtroom in 1925 for violating the states anti-evolution statute, the issue was man's relationship to the animal kingdom. It's hard to imagine that a case brought by a Manhattan fish-oil inspector against a purveyor of whale oil could end up in similar territory. As D. Graham Burnett's enthralling book demonstrates, it did just that.
展开▼
机译：当天主教教会因其异端观点而对伽利略进行审判时，人类在宇宙中的地位受到威胁。 1925年，学校老师John Scopes因违反各州的反进化法规而进入田纳西州的法庭时，问题是人与动物界的关系。很难想象曼哈顿的鱼油检查员针对鲸鱼油的供应商提起的诉讼可能会在类似的领域中结束。正如D. Graham Burnett令人着迷的书所证明的那样，它确实做到了。
展开▼
