The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World

Written by John Dickie

Narrated by Simon Slater

Discover the “convincingly researched and thoroughly entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) history of the world’s oldest and most influential fraternity

Founded in London in 1717 as a way of binding men in fellowship, Freemasonry proved so addictive that within two decades it had spread across the globe. Masonic influence became pervasive. 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. Both the Mormon Church and the Sicilian mafia owe their origins to Freemasonry.

Yet the Masons were as feared as they were influential. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Freemasonry has always been a den of devil-worshippers. For Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, the Lodges spread the diseases of pacifism, socialism and Jewish influence, so had to be crushed.

Freemasonry's story yokes together Winston Churchill and Walt Disney; Wolfgang Mozart and Shaquille O'Neal; Benjamin Franklin and Buzz Aldrin; Rudyard Kipling and 'Buffalo Bill' Cody; Duke Ellington and the Duke of Wellington.

John Dickie's The Craft is an enthralling exploration of a the world's most famous and misunderstood secret brotherhood, a movement that not only helped to forge modern society, but has substantial contemporary influence, with 400,000 members in Britain, over a million in the USA, and around six million across the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781549102059

John Dickie

John Dickie is Professor of Italian Studies at University College London. He is an internationally recognised specialist on many aspects of Italian history and his books have been translated into well over twenty languages. His history of the Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nostra, has sold a million copies. John has reached a multi-national television audience with a number of documentaries he has co-written and presented, including the six-part history of Italian food-a smash hit in Italy-which was based on Delizia! It is now on Amazon Prime as: Eating History - The Story of Italy on a Plate. John has been a judge of the Pesto World Championships in Genoa. In 2017 and 2018 he was the host of the Pasta World Championships in Parma, sponsored by Barilla. In 2021 he hosted the San Pellegrino Young Chef Academy in Milan. In 2005 the President of the Italian Republic appointed him a Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana.

Reviews for The Craft

[pierthinker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The subtitle of this book suggests we will learn how Freemasonry has impacted on our society today. Actually the book is more about how various governments, dictators, tyrannies and revolutionaries have used Freemasons as targets of hatred and abuse in order to further their own agendas.

The first part of the book describes the origins of Freemasonry in 18th century London, its spread to Scotland, Europe and the wider world, and something of the rituals and ceremonies employed. Like all secret societies, Freemasonry is mostly about improving self-worth through aggrandising ceremonies and mutual back-scratching. Here, the Craft comes across as a men-only mixture of a Hogwarts Appreciation Society and the WI.

As we move forwards in history the story becomes much darker, although, as Dickie shows, Freemasons have always been persecuted for their supposed powers. Power always needs a place to redirect popular opprobrium away from itself and towards a group that cannot fight back. Sometimes this is the Jews, sometimes it is Freemasonry, and sometimes it is both.

The book ends with a detailed indictment of the corruption of Freemasonry in Italy by the mafia and other criminal gangs and by self-serving elements of government.