The Origins of Freemasonry. Facts and Fictions

The Origins of Freemasonry
Facts and Fictions

Margaret C. Jacob
University of Pennsylvania Press
176 pages | 6 x 9 | 16 illus.
Cloth 2005 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3901-0
Paper 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-1988-3


INHOUD



Introduction

1. Origins
2. Daily Lives Measured in Masonic Time
3. Schools of Government
4. Money, Equality, and Fraternity: Freemasons Negotiate the Market
5. Women in the Lodges

Conclusion


"A classic in the field."—American Historical Review

"Highly recommended."—Choice

"When inviting us to go on a journey to the Origins of Freemasonry, Margaret C. Jacob does not take us towards the mysterious deserts of the East or the dark chapels of the Knights Templar. But, once again, she demonstrates that real history is often much more fascinating than the most extravagant fictions."—Roger Dachez, President, Masonic Institute of France

Can the ancestry of freemasonry really be traced back to the Knights Templar? Is the image of the eye in a triangle on the back of the dollar bill one of its cryptic signs? Is there a conspiracy that stretches through centuries and generations to align this shadow organization and its secret rituals to world governments and religions? Myths persist and abound about the freemasons, Margaret C. Jacob notes. But what are their origins? How has an early modern organization of bricklayers and stonemasons aroused so much public interest? In The Origins of Freemasonry, Jacob throws back the veil from a secret society that turns out not to have been very secret at all.

What factors contributed to the extraordinarily rapid spread of freemasonry over the course of the eighteenth century, and why were so many of the era's most influential figures drawn to it? Using material from the archives of leading masonic libraries in Europe, Jacob examines masonic almanacs and pocket diaries to get closer to what living as a freemason might have meant on a daily basis. She explores the persistent connections between masons and nascent democratic movements, as each lodge set up a polity where an individual's standing was meant to be based on merit, rather than on birth or wealth, and she demonstrates, beyond any doubt, how active a role women played in the masonic movement.

Margaret C. Jacob is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of many books, including Strangers Nowhere in the World: The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in Early Modern Europe, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press, as well as The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Selected Texts and Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West.


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Franstalige recensie


Een boekbespreking

The Origins of Freemasonry is a work which answers the needs of the time in relation
to esoteric and cultural studies. Considering the importance which Freemasonry holds
in any scholarly examination of the Western esoteric tradition and the confusingly
pervasive contemporary legends and folklore which surround Freemasonry, The
Origins of Freemasonry is a book which is clear, well-presented, and serves to dispel
some of the more fantastic legends which are circulated in popular books, television
“documentaries,” and in the more fabulous areas of the Internet. Margaret Jacob’s The
Origins of Freemasonry is a well-written, thoroughly researched, and meticulously
referenced book, which has succeeded in confronting and debunking some of the
hyperbole and legend that hampers the study of Freemasonry. Written by an expert on
the Enlightenment and the post-Newtonian world, it is a thoughtful and valuable
addition to the corpus of esoteric and cultural studies.
MORANDIR ARMSON
University of Sydney