Forty-seven percent of the American people, according to a 1991 Gallup poll, believe that God made man―as man is now―in a single act of creation, and within the last ten thousand years. Ronald L. Numbers chronicles the astonishing resurgence of this belief since the 1960s, as well as the creationist movement's tangled roots in the theologies of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Adventists, and other religious groups. Even more remarkable than Numbers's story of today's widespread rejection of the theory of evolution is the dramatic shift from acceptance of the earth's antiquity to the insistence of present-day scientific creationists that most fossils date back to Noah's flood and its aftermath, and that the earth itself is not more than ten thousand years old. Numbers traces the evolution of scientific creationism and shows how the creationist movement challenges the very meaning of science. "A classic history of a movement." -- Robert Bruce Mullin, Christian Century "In this monumental history of the young-Earth movement, there is no bitterness or cynicism. Rather [Numbers] tells the story with remarkable even- handedness. . . . This marvellously detailed, engagingly told and sometimes astonishing history has the intrigue of a Chaim Potok novel." -- George M. Marsden, Nature "Informative and rewarding . . . a chronicle derived from Numbers's prodigious research and his goal of giving the creationists their full story." -- J. David Hoeveler, Jr., Science "Numbers has meticulously reconstructed the careers and the relations of the heroes of creationism men largely unknown in research universities but vastly influential in seminaries, study groups and Sunday schools around the United States." -- Anthony Grafton, The New Republic "[An] excellently thorough study." -- Stephen R. L. Clark, New York Times Book Review "For those interested in the background of the modern revival of creationism, whether evolutionists or creationists, this book is a rich mine of information and historical insights."—Henry M. Morris, Institute for Creation Research "For those interested in the background of the modern revival of creationism, whether evolutionists or creationists, this book is a rich mine of information and historical insights."―Henry M. Morris, Institute for Creation Research Ronald L. Numbers is William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "A beautifully worked case study of the dynamics of people and the ideas that impel them. As an exposure of one of the most socially explosive and intellectually damaging movements of recent times, it is unquestionably a volume of major importance."