Secret Societies

by Norman MacKenzie

A collection of articles by several authors:

Primitive Secret Societies
Mau Mau
Thuggee
The Mysteries
The Assassins and the Knights Templar
The Rosicrucians
Freemasonry
Nationalist Secret Societies
Chinese Secret Societies
The Mafia
The Ku Klux Klan
Appendices: Masonic Ceremony, Apprentice Carbonaro, Ku Klux Klan Initiation.

350 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Aleksandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Assassins, Templars, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, etc. - by writing about them, you're already working with material that practically carries the intrigue on its own 🙂‍↔️ I mean, that already sounds like the beginning of a conspiracy rabbit hole capable of ruining my sleep schedule for at least a week✨



AND HONESTLY-



The book does contain a lot of interesting information: you can tell there was effort put into covering the origins, influence, beliefs, and historical significance of various secret societies throughout history




The problem?




The writing style absolutely refused to hold my attention



and I really do mean abSOLUTELY-




And trust me, I TRIED😭



I really wanted to get immersed in all the hidden-history vibes, coded symbolism, secret rituals, political influence and centuries-long conspiracies… but oh well, the delivery made everything feel weirdly dry and difficult to stay invested in; It's one of those situations where the topic itself is fascinating, yet the way it's presented somehow drains the excitement out of it




At some point I realized I physically could not focus on the book for more than 15-ish minutes at a time before my brain started wandering elsewhere - which is honestly impressive considering the actual themes being discussed-



The pacing also didn't help much



That being said, I am still glad I picked it up, if only because it introduced me to certain historical details and organizations I'd like to read more about in the future🙂‍↕️





Overall, this wasn't necessarily bad - it just wasn't engaging enough for me personally




A fascinating subject matter, but the writing style turned what could'ye been an obsession into a struggle✨

[Pierre Normand · Rating 1 out of 5]

An odd grouping of unrelated articles about unrelated organizations.
The implication made by the authors is that these organizations are, somehow, related, but they don't attempt to demonstrate how they are related, or how they could be.