The Craft cover art

The Craft

How the Freemasons Made the Modern World

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Craft

By: John Dickie
Narrated by: Simon Slater
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

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.

©2020 John Dickie (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts World Imperialism England Authoritarianism United States Winston Churchill
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Freemasons for Dummies, 2nd Edition cover art
The Temple and the Lodge cover art
Freemasons: The Hidden History of Freemasonry in the Last 100 Years cover art
In Hitler's Munich cover art
Albert Pike's Esoterika cover art
Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots cover art
The Lost Keys of Freemasonry cover art
The Illuminati cover art
The Case for Nationalism cover art
Wicca for Beginners cover art
Atlas Shrugged cover art
The View from Flyover Country cover art
Pirate Women cover art
The Looming Tower cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
Secret City cover art

What listeners say about The Craft

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    67
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    62
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    58
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it

Whether you have an interest in the freemasons or not, this is a superb listen. A history lesson that almost anyone can enjoy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narration and storytelling.

Liked almost all of it but took a terribly apologist stance inserting relatively irrelevant storylines throughout and too often overlooking important aspects to do so.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent and wide ranging history of Freemason

Really enjoyed the balanced approach to the history of the Masonic Order by a non Mason

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting and Enlightening

This title contained some very useful history and was presented in a balanced and unbiased way. It was objective in its outlook and went into good detail but it gave the sense that at any point the listener could pause, branch-off in any number of directions for more information. The book was an excellent primer but ultimately it gave a sense of just how large a subject are the Craft is so it's entirely possible that the listener will be left with more questions than answers.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great Insight

Great Insight with considered narration. I learnt lots about a topic I knew nothing about. A little more depth on the practice of Freemasonry itself rather than the history might have been nice bit overall a great interesting listen packed with information.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very good book

loads of content and well read aswell. having listened to this one can see the repetition of history in different places and how freemasonry has survived during these times.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very interested book and subject

Hi all if you are interested in Freemasonry give this book a listen,

You may just fine out something you did not known or that you miss understood

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting and irritating look at Freemasonry.

Interesting, fascinating and intriguing stories but quite often delivered with a sneering tone and a heavy load of ‘identity politics’ added in to discredit Freemasonry (you know the usual topics used).

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Hi hopes

Well I had high hopes for this book unfortunately it just tell you how much everybody dislikes the freemasons .
If john dickie was a freemason he would have had a better under standing .
it just seemed to me and others I have talked to about this book it's just another collection of corruption and lothing of a fraternal order.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful