The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World

Written by John Dickie

Narrated by Simon Slater

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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Release date: Aug 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781473658974

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.