This unique reference offers a discussion of the social and legal history behind the ongoing evolution versus creationism controversy. * Detailed chronology of the history of the debate from Aristotle in 310 B.C. to the U.S. Senate’s adoption of Sense of the Senate in June 2002 * Biographies of 172 key individuals on both sides of the controversy, including Leona Wilson, who initiated the first lawsuit by creationists * An edited collection of the eight principal court decisions, including Mclean v. Arkansas and Segraves v. State of California * Photographs and illustrations of influential people like Herbert Spencer, who coined the terms evolution and survival of the fittest