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Rating: 
Summary: One long argument
Review: This is an invaluable, and balanced, account of the Darwin debate, with particular attention to the Creationist initiatives of the last generation, climaxing in the Intelligent Design movement with its battle for the schools. The many interviews include vignettes of most of the major players, and help to fill in the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the two camps in ways partisans do not. The period starting with Philip Johnson's Darwin on Trial is especially well covered.
Despite rooting for the science camp, I was struck by the rigidity of the scientific camp and the clear feeling one gets that this is an artificially created culture war that results from the disastrous legacy of reductionist theories promoted ambitiously to rewrite culture from top to bottom. The gang of crackpots that has made evolution service their atheist obsessions has distorted its whole development. That's not a statement in favor of theism in evolution, but of deceptive science used to promote an agenda based on bogus proofs by natural selection. The integrity of science is at risk. The metaphysics of atheism is as severe as the theistic. This has distorted the exposure of the flaws in the theory, all along.
It could never have succeeded and we see the growth of resistance.
What seems surprising and sad is how little the broader spectrum of culture beyond the Creationist niche is aware of or involved in the issues. This abdication of the field by mainstream culture is a puzzle, for the problems with Darwin's theory are not so hard to uncover. One reason is the clear disinformation of overly promoted and under-examined scientism. Part if the reason is the savage attack on the 'two cultures' which were put there to cooperate by constructively opposites perspectives. Now noone would dare think aloud lest they get mauled by the mad horde in the Dawkins jihad.
Since much of the debate is about schools one is struck by the tenacity of scientific obtuseness on evolution, and one must conclude that specialized education is to blame. Scientists tend to be very good about technical subjects but unable to see the broader implications of Darwinism and the harm done by positivistic thinking made general in the name of science. This has nothing to do with religion versus science, as such, and indicates the one dimensional attitude that science in general explains everything, and Darwinism in particular is the great world historical breakthrough that is was not.
This is a very thorough book, and recommended for coming to grips with the cultural politics of evolution.
We need a debriefing of Darwin sometime soon. But the Darwin establishment as this book indicates is so entrenched that this seems unlikely.
It is a scandal that fundamentalists have been the principal party to perform this task. Since I dislike Creationism, that is saying something!
Rating: 
Summary: Potentially useful ... but ...
Review: While I overall enjoyed this book, providing as it did a number of interesting facts and observations regarding creationism in America, I was left feeling more than a little worried. Not because of what Witham was saying, but because of a number of factual errors in the text which left me wondering regarding the accuracy of his statements within areas that I am less familiar with. For example:1. Chambers' "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" was published in 1844, not 1840 (p. 46)
2. The "Center for Science and Cultural Renewal" is actually the "Center for Renewal of Science and Culture" (actually, now it's the "Center for Science and Culture") (p. 69)
3. The statement that it was claimed that "Mitochondrial Eve" was "the ancestor of modern humans" is somewhat inaccurate (p. 89)
4. The Human Genome Project did not have the goal to "master the human gene" ... there is no "human gene" (there is, however, a "human genome") (p. 138)
5. The paleontologist who opposed evolution was Richard Owen. Robert Owen was a socialist thinker and industrialist. (p. 181)
6. It was Marvin Lubenow who documented the early debates (not Martin, p. 217). None of this is fatal to Witham's argument. However, it does either indicate sloppiness on either his part, that of the editors at Oxford University Press, or the book's in-house reviewers. One is left distrusting the multitude of other facts he gives and doubting his "impeccable reportage". In short, good but should have been better,
Rating:
Summary: A worthy successor to Numbers
Review: Witham's historical and sociological report on the current status of creationism in the United States mostly takes up where Ronald Numbers' THE CREATIONISTS leaves off. Readers will find much information about the new creationist movement that took off in the 1990s, but will also be exposed to the great diversity of thought within the ranks of the creationists and within those of religious scientists (most of whom are also evolutionists) more generally. There is precious little critical analysis in this book, so those who want answers in the creationism vs. evolution controversy will need to look elsewhere (for instance, to Robert T. Pennock's TOWER OF BABEL and Kenneth R. Miller's FINDING DARWIN'S GOD), but anyone interested in getting a broad overview of the modern interaction (or lack thereof) between evolutionary biology and religion will appreciate Witham's work very much.
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