Edward Larson is a university professor of history at Pepperdine School of Law, where he holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law. Born in Ohio in 1953, Larson earned a law degree from Harvard University and a doctorate in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Larson is the author of several books on history and science, among them An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science, The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783-1789, and the 2020 dual biography Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership. He earned the Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods, which he has followed up with titles on evolution, creation, and eugenics.

William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860-July 26, 1925) was a Congressman, politician, and renowned orator. He won three presidential nominations and was Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. Bryan remained active in politics after he left civil service, helping to ratify four amendments: federal income tax, popular election of senators, prohibition, and women’s suffrage. In the last few years of his life, he adopted the cause of restrictive legislation on teaching