Freemasons. How Freemasons Shaped the Modern World

"The history of Freemasonry is inextricably linked with many outstanding figures, including Winston Churchill and Walt Disney, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Shaquille O’Neal, Benjamin Franklin and Buzz Aldrin, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry Ford and Cecil Rhodes, Rudyard Kipling and Buffalo Bill. Founded in London in 1717 as a union around ideals that shape character, Freemasonry spread across the globe in two decades. Under George Washington, it created the worldview of the American nation; Masonic networks held the British Empire together; under Napoleon, Masonic lodges turned into instruments of authoritarianism and later into covers for revolutionary conspiracy. The Mormon church and the Sicilian Mafia owe their origins to Freemasonry. Today, there are 400,000 Freemasons in the UK, more than a million in the US, and about six million worldwide. Professor John Dickie's book is an engaging exploration of a movement that not only participated in shaping modern society but continues to hold significant influence.
«In conceiving this book, I aimed to reflect the diversity of human experiences related to Freemasonry, which can be found neither in the accounts of the Freemasons themselves nor in what their detractors and persecutors write. I tried not to reduce it to a set of traits and patterns, so I decided to present some geographical places and eras that were especially significant to the history of the brotherhood. We face a very difficult, but also incredibly interesting investigation. Myths and misconceptions are woven into the very fabric of Freemasonry's history and are already inseparable from it. At the very center lies a sacred rite, which begins at the entrance to the temple and unfolds beyond time and space». (John Dickie)"