A Noble Fight examines the metaphors and meanings behind the African American appropriation of the culture, ritual, and institution of freemasonry in navigating the contested terrain of American ...democracy. Combining cultural and political theory with extensive archival research--including the discovery of a rare collection of nineteenth-century records of an African American Freemason Lodge--Corey D. B. Walker provides an innovative perspective on American politics and society during the long transition from slavery to freedom._x000B__x000B_With great care and detail, Walker argues that African American freemasonry provides a critical theoretical lens for understanding the distinctive ways African Americans have constructed a radically democratic political imaginary through racial solidarity and political nationalism, forcing us to reconsider much more circumspectly the complex relationship between voluntary associations and democratic politics._x000B__x000B_Mapping the discursive logics of the language of freemasonry as a metaphoric rendering of American democracy, this study interrogates the concrete forms of an associational culture, revealing how paradoxical aspects of freemasonry such as secrecy and public association inform the production of particular ideas and expressions of democracy in America.
Much like in the present day, building a house in the sixteenth century involved masons, carpenters and glaziers, among others, and in many cities such trades had separate companies to govern their ...own affairs. In Edinburgh, however, they banded together in a single body - the Edinburgh Incorporation of Mary's Chapel. Building Early Modern Edinburgh traces the history of the organisation, which sought to control the capital's building trades and defend their privileges. By utilising a range of previously missing charters and archival documents, the author offers a new perspective on the prestigious and important craft guild in its 543 years of existence. Developing a crucial theme of 'composite corporatism', and using the concepts of 'family' and 'household' to approach an urban institution, this book is a valuable resource of comparative material for the study of craft guilds and urban history in a global context.
Freemasonic activity in the Ottoman lands saw an unprecedented growth and dynamism in the final phase of Ottoman history particularly benefitting from its close association with the Young Turk ...movement and its political apparatus, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Ottoman freemasonry was led to a new level of popularity with a great deal of public visibility, a consequence of which was the formation of the Ottoman Grand Orient as a national organization for the first time in the Ottoman lands. Despite the ensuing controversial accusations and conspiracy theories against the freemasonic institution which became commonplace during the period in question, it occupied a place within the Ottoman state and society which it had never attained before. This made it possible for the Ottoman freemasons to integrate themselves to the universal fraternal discourse of the freemasonic philosophy during a last attempt of the Ottoman administration to keep its remaining lands intact. The intention of this article is to create a window within the broader picture of the socio-political environment of the time with a view to the position and involvement of freemasonry in which its association with the CUP often stands out as a major factor.
This essay explores a common theme in Margaret Jacob's The Radical Enlightenment and M. H. Abrams's Natural Supernaturalism, arguing they traverse the trajectory of a doctrine that may be called ..."realism about values" from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century and the political possibilities it offers for a form of radicalism that stands apart from the political commitments of the orthodox Enlightenment. Such radicalism stresses the ideal of overcoming alienation and reconfigures the great ideals of the Enlightenment—liberty and equality—to nest within this more fundamental ideal, addressing the chronic tension and trade-off between liberty and equality as standardly conceived.
The life of Töhötöm Nagy (1908–1979), Jesuit, Mason, and secret service agent, offers fascinating insights into interwar Hungary, the Catholic Church and Vatican diplomacy, Freemasonry, and the ...activities of communist state security service. As a young Jesuit Nagy was one of the leaders of a successful Catholic youth movement in interwar Hungary. After World War II he played an important role acting as an intermediary between the Vatican, the Red Army, and the Hungarian Catholic Church. After being sent to South America, he was attracted by liberation theology, but left the Society of Jesus, joined the Freemasons, and did social and philanthropic work in the slums of Buenos Aires. However, in the late 1960s he agreed to work for the Hungarian state security service in return for his repatriation. This latter period is reconstructed from the files of the Historical Archives of State Security in Budapest. Éva Petrás writes with empathy but with a sense of distance of the courage and restless energy of her subject. Her discussion of the limits of free choice and Nagy’s intense struggle to live a meaningful life make this biography breathtaking.
Franco's speeches are loaded with anti-liberal rhetorical arguments, peppered with anti-communism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Masonry. Many examples can be given. In them, he presented his particular ...interpretation of the history of Spain, a rhetorical model on which the revisionist theses would later be based. In this sense, we will study, as inspiring sources of the revisionist positions in the study of contemporary history, some examples that reflect his particular analysis of the history of Spain, which will be based on his oft-repeated theory of the Jewish-masonic-communist conspiracy.
The article is dedicated to the presence of the Napoleonic myth in Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment (1866) through its religious aspect, namely the historical and cultural mergence of Napoleon ...and Mohammed and the worship of Napoleon among the mystic sects of Russian schismatics in the first half of the 19th century. The formation of a lasting perception of Napoleon Bonaparte as the new “prophet”, “Mohammed of the West” — which can be found in Stendhal, Alexandre Dumas, Honoré de Balzac, and others — is here traced, as well as the way Napoleon used religion and art for political aims during the Egyptian expedition and after. Particular attention is dedicated to Voltaire’s play Mahomet (1741) and its influence on Napoleon (and possibly on Dostoevsky) through theatre performances. Rodion Raskolnikov’s Napoleonic theory is explained through an immersion in the history of the wars between Russia and France and of the Russian sectarian movement, where in 1920s-1940s could be found more than one sect worshipping Napoleon. According to the reports of secret police agents, they tacitly gathered in Moscow and worshipped a bust of Napoleon the Emperor, believing that he was not dead but alive, and would soon appear to “command the righteous regiments to restore the shattered order”. Dostoevsky could use this original mystical phenomenon in his novel. It is no coincidence that one of the doubles-substitutes for the main character in Crime and Punishment is the schismatic Mikolka, who was born in the Ryazan province, where Raskolnikov’s mother and sister lived.
