Secret Societies and Subversive Movements
by Nesta H. Webster
List Price:
Our Price: $21.31
You Save: $7.68 (26%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nesta H. WebsterEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-06-22
ISBN: 143463051X
Number of pages: 490
Publisher: BiblioBazaar
Book Reviews of Secret Societies and Subversive Movements
Book Review: Unhinged flight of fancy by a historian who should have known better
Summary: 2 Stars
I read Nesta Webster's "French Revolution" a few years ago and was extremely impressed. I found her narrative vivid and well written, her research impeccable and her conclusions illuminating. I felt that she successfully exposed the inner workings of the Revolution and traced its origins to the artificial machinations of secret societies. From my point of view it seemed like her assertions were well supported by primary source citations. I eagerly sought to read more of her books and was excited when I got my hands on this one. I mention my esteem for her other book only to establish that my disappointment with "Secret Societies and Subversive Movements" was not politically motivated, as many of her critics are. I found this book to be practically unreadable.
I don't recall ever reading such an impenetrably opaque, poorly written, disorganized and incoherent work of purported history. It gives one the impression of reading the jumble of Ms. Webster's working notes, rather than an organized historical thesis. The author's plan for this work was apparently to utterly deluge the reader with every tidbit of information- factual and theoretical, contradictory and consistent- ever written on the subject of secret societies and have us make sense of it somehow. That I was completely unable to do.
Apart from the book's lack of logical organization, the big problem is that there are few reliable primary sources on secret societies, which by nature are- of course -secretive and exclusive. They're not big on record keeping or publicity, especially if their aims are subversive. Therefore, Ms. Webster was reduced to presenting us with a ragbag of second and third-hand legends, unsupported assertions, rumors, occult conjectures and metaphysical theories. It wasn't surprising that once objective standards of historicity were abandoned, Ms. Webster found it easy to shoehorn every member of the conspiracist's enemies list into the mosaic and find a direct relationship between the lot of them: Babylonians, Druids, Egyptians, the Assassins, Templars, Gnostics, et al. It really became mind-numbing after a while. I am frankly surprised at so many positive reviews for this book, but judging from the extremely vague descriptions contained therein, I would have to conclude that most of the favorable reviewers didn't understand it any better than I did.
I believe in conspiracies. The people who don't believe that bad men of common conviction secretly join together to plan nefarious activities are the ones who need their heads examined. However, I think this book represents the opposite error of seeing a conspiracy behind every_event_and a spiritual and historical relationship common to every secret society down through time. I think that it's comforting in a way to blame all of history's evils on a single, identifiable group or groups of people, like the Masons, or secret societies in general. It gives us a tangible target to fight, against which we can conceivably win. It's much scarier to think that the real motive forces for history's events are simple human stupidity, chance, greed, and the inclination to evil that exists in every human heart.
I still admire Ms. Webster's work and will definitely read more of her in the future. However, I earnestly warn the reader away from this book. I don't know what other book to recommend on secret societies, but I think I can safely say that this one will utterly repel the objective reader.
Summary of Secret Societies and Subversive Movements
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.Freemasonry Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Freemasonry Books
The Center Illustratedby S. G. Fielding
Kessinger Publishing, LLC; Published: 2003-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.21
Price in other shops:
Freemasonry in the Holy Land or Handmarks of Hiram's Buildersby Rob Morris
Kessinger Publishing, LLC; Published: 1942-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.82
Price in other shops:
Medieval Masons (Shire Archaeology)by Malcolm Hislop
Shire; Published: 2009-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.42
Price in other shops:
Freemasonry in Context: History, Ritual, ControversyLexington Books; Published: 2004-05-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $409.93
Secrets and Practices of the Freemasons: Sacred Mysteries, Rituals and Symbols Revealedby Jean-Louis de Biasi
Llewellyn Publications; Published: 2011-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops:
Freemasonry: Symbols, Secrets, Significanceby W. Kirk MacNulty
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.14
Price in other shops:
A Noble Fight: African American Freemasonry and the Struggle for Democracy in Americaby Corey D. B. Walker
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2008-11-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $43.40
Price in other shops:
Michigan Masonic Monitorby Lou B. Winsor
General Books LLC; Published: 2010-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.01
Price in other shops:
Inside the Brotherhood: Explosive Secretby Martin Short
Harpercollins MD; Published: 2009-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $54.32
Shadow of Solomonby Laurence Gardner
Element; Published: 2005-08-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.05