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The Craft

How the Freemasons Made the Modern World

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About this listen

 Cecil Rhodes and Shaquille O'Neal; Mozart and Peter Sellers; Duke Ellington and the Duke of Wellington; Benjamin Franklin and Rudyard Kipling. These Masons, and many others, people the pages of The Craft, but even more compelling is the overarching narrative of Freemasonry itself. As a set of character-forming ideals, and a way of binding men in fellowship, it proved so addictive that within a few decades of its foundation in London in 1717 it had spread as far as India, Australia, South Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean.

Under George Washington, the Craft became a creed for the new American nation; Masonic networks held the British empire together; under Napoleon, the Craft became a tool of authoritarianism and then a cover for revolutionary conspiracy. The Mormons borrowed their rituals from the Craft. The Sicilian mafia stole the Masonic organizational model.

Amid all this strange diversity, Masonry's core rituals and values have remained unchanged, inspiring both loyalty and suspicion. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Freemasonry has always been a secret den of atheists and devil-worshippers: all Masons have been excommunicated since 1738. For Hitler, Mussolini and Franco the Lodges spread the diseases of pacifism, socialism and Jewish influence, so had to be crushed.

Professor Dickie's The Craft is an enthralling exploration of a movement that not only helped to forge modern society, but still has substantial contemporary influence. With 400,000 members in Britain, over a million in the USA, and around six million across the world, understanding the role of Freemasonry is as important now as it has ever been.

(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd©2020 John Dickie Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts World Africa Imperialism Socialism England Middle Ages Authoritarianism Winston Churchill Social justice British Empire Latin American
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Really enjoyed the balanced approach to the history of the Masonic Order by a non Mason

An excellent and wide ranging history of Freemason

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Whether you have an interest in the freemasons or not, this is a superb listen. A history lesson that almost anyone can enjoy.

loved it

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Hi all if you are interested in Freemasonry give this book a listen,

You may just fine out something you did not known or that you miss understood

Very interested book and subject

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loads of content and well read aswell. having listened to this one can see the repetition of history in different places and how freemasonry has survived during these times.

very good book

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I enjoyed this very informative and balanced explanation of Freemasonry.
I wasn't sure what to expect as a Freemason myself, it's easy to bash any organisation these days without really getting an unvarnished overview from which you can then make an informed opinion.
personally I found the descriptions of ritual accurate without just being an attempt at sensationalising what is in fact simple.
I have been fortunate to have started my masonic journey in a more enlightened time as is pointed out if it's personal back scratching your after it's the wrong organisation for you and any Freemason will tell you its not free in so much as you would be expected to help your fellow man who ever that is by way of charitable donations and work.
it is a good book I will go back to it for reference, the best way to find out about Masonry is the obvious one ask a Mason it isn't a secret as the author quite rightly informs us .
Lodge 8259 County Durham

The depth of information

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