Edward J. Larson holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law and is University Professor of History at Pepperdine</placename /> University</placetype /></place /> and recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. He served as Associate Counsel for the U.S. Congress Committee on Education and Labor (1983-87) and an attorney with a major Seattle</city /> law firm (1979-83) and retains an appointment at the University</placetype /> of Georgia</placename /></place />, where he has taught since 1987.
The author of seven books and over one hundred published articles, Larson writes mostly about issues of science, medicine and law from an historical perspective. His books include A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign (2007); Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (2005, 2006 rev. ed.); 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, 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, Atlantic Monthly, Time, Science, Scientific American, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, Virginia Law Review, and Isis. He is the co-author or co-editor of six additional books, including (most recently) The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison (2005). The Fulbright Program named Larson to the John Adams Chair in American Studies for 2001 and he participated in the National Science Foundation’s 2003-04 Antarctic Artists and Writers Program.
Larson teaches, writes, and speaks on history, law, science, and bio-ethics for academic, professional, and public audiences. He has delivered endowed or funded addresses at over 60 universities and was commencement speaker at two universities. He has given papers at academic conferences throughout the world, and legal and medical education talks to professional legal, judicial and medical groups across the country. He is interviewed frequently for broadcast and print media, including multiple appearances on PBS, NPR, the History Channel, C-SPAN, and CNN. His course on the history of evolution theory is available on audio and video The Teaching Company.
Born in central Ohio</state />, Larson attended Mansfield</city />, Ohio</state /></place />, public schools. He earned a B.A. from Williams</placename /> College</placename /> (1974), a law degree from Harvard (1979), and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1984), and received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from the Ohio</placename /> State</placetype /> University</placetype /></place /> in 2004. Larson has taught in Austria</country-region />, China</country-region />, Chile</country-region />, Ecuador</country-region />, France</country-region />, the Netherlands</country-region />, and New Zealand</country-region />, and Italy</country-region /></place />. He is married to a pediatrician, Lucy Larson, and has two children, Sarah and Luke. They live in Malibu</city />, California</state />, and Athens</city />, Georgia</country-region /></place />.
