Academics

Meet the Faculty

Edward J. Larson, Ph.D.
University Professor and Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law

Office: School of Law (SOL)
E-mail: ed.larson@pepperdine.edu

• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1984
• J.D., Harvard University, 1979
• M.A., University of Wisconsin, 1976
• B.A., Williams College, 1974

Prior to joining the Pepperdine School of Law, Professor Larson was the Russell Professor of History and held the Talmadge Chair in Law at the University of Georgia. He received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Professor Larson specializes in law, science and technology, and health care law. The author of seven books and over sixty published articles, Professor Larson writes mostly about issues of science, medicine, and law from an historical perspective. His books are A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 (2007), The Creation-Evolution Debate: Historical Perspectives (2007), Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theor (2004), Evolution's Workshop: God and Science in the Galapagos Islands (2001), Sex, Race, and Science Eugenics in the Deep South (1995), Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (1985, 1989, 2003 rev. ed.) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (1997). His articles have appeared in such varied journals as Nature, Scientific American, Atlantic Monthly, Michigan Law Review, The Nation, Time, Wall Street Journal, Virginia Law Review, Christianity Today, Christian Century, Journal of the History of Medicine and British Journal for the History of Science. He has also co-authored or co-edited an additional six books, including a widely used property law casebook published by Aspen (2004 and 2008), and an edited edition of The Essentials Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow (2007).

The Fulbright Program named Professor Larson to the John Adams Chair in American Studies for 2001, and he taught two seminars in American legal history and American science policy while at the University of Leiden in Holland. Professor Larson delivered the George Sarton Award lecture at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2000, honoring an historian of science for a body of work. He also received one of University of Georgia's highest honors for scholarship when he was presented with the Albert Christ-Janer Creative Research Award in spring 2001. He has taught in Austria, China, Italy, France and New Zealand. A frequent speaker, Professor Larson has presented named or funded lectures at over 100 colleges or universities, including California Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of Chicago, and New York University. He has given papers at dozens of academic conferences in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia, and legal and medical education talks to professional legal, judicial, and medical groups throughout America. He is interviewed frequently for broadcast and print media, including feature appearances on the Today Show, Booknotes, Nova, PBS News Hour and various BBC and NPR programs.

Professor Larson also served as associate counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor (1983-89), Counsel for the Washington State House of Representatives (1981-82), and as an attorney with Davis, Wright & Tremaine in Seattle (1979-83). In 2004, Ohio State University awarded Larson an honorary doctorate in Human Letters.

Selected Works:

• The Reception of Darwinism in the Nineteenth Century, 21 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF 3 (2009).
• Prejudiced Results: Darwin and Race, BOOKFORUM, Feb./Mar. 2009, at 36.
• The Politics of History, WALL ST. J., Feb. 6, 2008.
• Time for Another Jubilee, USA TODAY, Jan. 14, 2008.
• The Revolution of 1800, 42 AMERICAN HISTORY 26 (2007).
• Declarations of Faith, TIME, Nov. 12, 2007.
• The Trial in American Life, AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, Oct. 2007 (book review).
• Infidels at the Gates: Science and Religion in the Election of 1800, 18 SCIENCE AND SPIRIT 45 (2007).
• Edward J. Larson & M. Dettmann, Impact of HSA on Health Care Reform: Preliminary Results after One Year, 40 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 1087 (2005).
• Building a Nation out of Thirteen States: The Constitutional Convention and Preemption, 33 PEPP. L. REV. 7 (2005).
• From Cruzan to Schiavo: Similar Bedfellows in Fact and at Law, 22 CONST. COMMENT. 405 (2005).
• Euthanasia in America--Past, Present, and Future, 102 MICH. L. REV. 1245 (2004) (book reviews).
• Tailored Genes, LEGAL AFFAIRS, Nov.-Dec. 2003, at 56.
• The Meaning of Human Gene Testing for Disability Rights, 70 U. CIN. L. REV. 913 (2001-02).
• Edward J. Larson & D. Coenan, Congressional Power over Presidential Elections: Lessons from the Past and Reforms for the Future, 43 WM. & MARY L. REV 851 (2002).
• Law and Society in the Courtroom: Introducing the Trials of the Century, 68 UMKC L. REV. 543 (2000).
• GALILEO GOES TO JAIL AND OTHER MYTHS ABOUT SCIENCE AND RELIGION (R. Numbers ed., Harvard Univ. Press 2009).
• PROPERTY LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (James Charles Smith, Edward J. Larson, John Copeland Nagle & John A. Kidwell eds., Aspen, 2d ed. 2008).
• Post Modern Developments in the Debate, in DARWIN AND THE BIBLE: THE CULTURAL CONFRONTATION (R. Robbins and M. Cohen eds., Penguin 2008).
• The Battle Between Creation and Evolution in the Classroom, in DARWIN AND THE BIBLE: THE CULTURAL CONFRONTATION (R. Robbins and M. Cohen eds., Penguin 2008).
• A MAGNIFICENT CATASTROPHE: THE TUMULTUOUS ELECTION OF 1800, AMERICA'S FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (Free Press 2007).
• THE CREATION-EVOLUTION DEBATE: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES (Univ. of Georgia Press 2007).
• THE ESSENTIAL WORDS AND WRITINGS OF CLARENCE DARROW (Edward J. Larson ed., Modern Library 2007).
• The Classroom Controversy: A History of the Dispute over Teaching Evolution, in THE PANDA'S BLACK BOX: OPENING UP THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN CONTROVERSY (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press 2007).
• THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: A NARRATIVE HISTORY FROM THE NOTES OF JAMES MADISON (Edward J. Larson & Michael Winship eds., Modern Library 2005).
• PROPERTY LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (James Charles Smith, Edward J. Larson, John Copeland Nagle & John A. Kidwell eds., Aspen 2004).
• EVOLUTION: THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF A SCIENTIFIC THEORY (Modern Library 2004).
• EVOLUTION: THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF A SCIENTIFIC THEORY (Modern Library 2004).
• The Scopes Trial in History and Legend, in WHEN SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY MEET (David C. Lindberg & Ronald L. Numbers eds., Univ. of Chicago Press 2003).
• Relations of Science and Religion, in DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN HISTORY (Stanley I. Kutler ed., Scribner's, 3d ed. 2003).
• Edward J. Larson, Clarence Darrow, in OXFORD COMPANION TO AMERICAN LAW (Kermit L. Hall ed., Oxford Univ. Press 2002).
• The Scopes Trial, in SCIENCE AND RELIGION: A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION (Gary B. Ferngren ed., Johns Hopkins Univ. Press 2002).
• EVOLUTION'S WORKSHOP: GOD AND SCIENCE ON THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS (Basic Books 2001).
• Scopes Trial, in OXFORD COMPANION TO AMERICAN HISTORY (Paul S. Boyer ed., Oxford Univ. Press 2001).
• The Scopes Monkey Trial, in BOOKNOTES STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY: LEADING HISTORIANS ON THE EVENTS THAT SHAPED OUR COUNTRY (Brian Lamb ed., Public Affairs 2001).
• THE SCOPES TRIAL: A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY (Univ. of Tennessee Press 2000).
• THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN THE WESTERN TRADITION: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA (Edward J. Larson, Gary Ferngren & Darril Amundsen eds., Garland Publishing 2000).
• The Cultural Wars at 75, in SELECTED ORATIONS OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN (R. M. Cornelius ed., Bryan College 2000).