{"product_id":"the-craft-john-dickie-9781473658202","title":"The Craft","description":"\u003cp\u003eCecil Rhodes and Shaquille O'Neal; Mozart and Peter Sellers; Duke Ellington and the Duke of Wellington; Conan Doyle 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 and the Caribbean.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUnder 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmid 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eProfessor 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Dickie","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43175960084723,"sku":"9781473658202","price":34.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/products\/9781473658202.jpg?v=1662079800","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/the-craft-john-dickie-9781473658202","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}