Following the appointment of its first aristocratic grand masters in the 1720s and in the wake of its connections to the Enlightenment, Free and Accepted Masonry rapidly became part of Britain's national profile and the largest and most influential of its extensive range of clubs and societies. The new organization did not evolve naturally from the mediaeval guilds and religious orders that pre-dated it but was reconfigured radically by a largely self-appointed inner core. It became a vehicle for the expression and transmission of their political and religious views, and for the Enlightenment concepts they championed. Through an examination of new and previously unexplored primary documentation, Berman contributes to an understanding of the contemporary political and social culture and explores how freemasonry became a mechanism that promoted the interests of the Hanoverian establishment, connecting elite metropolitan and provincial figures. A range of networks centered on the aristocracy, parliament, professional societies and the magistracy are examined, as are the key individuals instrumental in spreading the Masonic message. The book concludes that freemasonry should be recognized not only as the most prominent of the many 18th-century fraternal organizations but also as a significant cultural vector and a component of the social, economic, scientific and political transformation then in progress. Berman's analysis throws a new and original light on the formation and development of what rapidly became a national and international phenomenon. "...a valuable work for serious Masonic historians." Choice, October 2012, Vol. 50 No. 02. Now in its second edition.
Ric Berman researches, writes and speaks on eighteenth and nineteenth-century English, Irish and American freemasonry. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the author of numerous journal articles and books, and has delivered keynote lectures across the globe. Ric holds an MA and PhD from from the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter, respectively, and undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford's Modern European History Research Centre. A freemason for over forty years and twice a Prestonian Lecturer, Ric holds Grand Rank in the United Grand Lodge of England and is a Past Master of three English Lodges including Quatuor Coronati, the premier lodge of Masonic research. He is also an American freemason, a member and honorary member of lodges in five states, a Blue Friar, and a Fellow of the Philalethes Society. He was the Anson Jones lecturer for the Texas Lodge of Research in 2023. Born in London, Ric lives in rural Oxfordshire.
