What is Freemasonry? Why is Freemasonry associated with conspiracy theories? Do Freemasons make the modern world? If you have such questions, John Dickie's The Craft may be suitable for you. The Craft, written by a non-Freemason scholar, not only debunks conspiracy theories but also goes further by producing a global history of Freemasonry, and explaining how Freemasonry, or what Freemasons call “the Craft,” expands beyond Europe.

Freemasonry is a fellowship of men who are bound by oaths to pursue a beautiful system of morality, self-improvement, and Enlightenment values. Dickie starts by telling the story of John Cousto, who, in 1743, was tortured by the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Lisbon to disclose the secrets of Freemasonry.

Secrecy is the heart of Freemasonry. While Freemasonry provides an image to the general public as a secret society for elite white males, the membership of “the Craft” is actually more diverse. Freemasons treat friendship, respect, integrity, and charity as anchors. These anchors cannot exist without secrecy within the lodges, where men can socialize without differentiation and discrimination. In England, Freemasons wear not only an apron, but also gloves during their meetings “so that no Brother can tell the difference between the hands of a Duke and the hands of a dustman” (13). Secrecy in Freemasonry provides a safe haven for men to share Enlightenment beliefs freely within the lodges. Freemasonry's secrecy, therefore, made the Roman Catholics anxious because Enlightenment beliefs were shaking the Vatican's legitimacy during the Enlightenment. In the last few centuries, Freemasonry has been suppressed by different regimes for political reasons, including Adolf Hitler, General Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan, and the Communist Party of China.

How did Freemasonry spread all over the world from Great Britain? Dickie argues that Freemasonry “is one of Britain's most successful cultural exports, comparable in that respect to sports like tennis, soccer and golf” (7). Dickie starts the journey from Edinburgh, where Freemasonry originated. Masonic lodges actually appeared in Scotland nearly a hundred and fifty years before John Cousto's torture in the eighteenth century. Masonic lodges were originally guilds of stonemasons, or operative masons. The Lodge of Edinburgh No. 1, also called Mary's Chapel, possesses the oldest existing meeting minutes of any masonic lodge still operating—dating back to 31 July 1599. The Lodge of Edinburgh admitted only stonemasons until 1634, when the first nonoperative (or speculative) mason was initiated as a member.

The operative masons depended on trade secrets. Their trade secrets—knowledge of arts and geometry—were admired by nobles and royals, who had to rely on operative masons to build palaces or churches for them. For example, in 1594, James VI of Scotland celebrated the birth of a male heir by commissioning his master of works, William Schaw, to construct a new chapel at Stirling Castle. After the Lodge of Edinburgh admitted its first speculative mason, more nobles started to join different lodges, as crucial elements of the Enlightenment such as arts and science in masonry attracted gentlemen. As Dickie discusses in chapter 4, speculative masonry (or Freemasonry) became famous in London and attracted a broader public in the golden age of the club and the coffee house in the early eighteenth century. Freemasonry was a trademark of the Enlightenment at that time. Many people may not know that the foundation stone of Old College, a well-known building of the University of Edinburgh, was laid by the Grand Master Mason of Scotland, who was invited by the principal William Robertson, on 16 November 1789. These Edinburgh Freemasons, such as Sir Walter Scott and Lord Brougham, were also members of the Speculative Society, one of the city's enlightening societies dedicated to public speaking and literary composition. The Speculative Society is now still meeting at Old College.

Dickie then moves to different parts of the world, showing how Freemasonry's revolutionary and reactionary ideas made authorities distrustful of Freemasonry, from the Catholic authorities, who presented Freemasonry as an illicit gay cult, to Hitler's labeling of Freemasons as Nazism's most dangerous foes. Dickie also discusses how George Washington brought Freemasonry to America and made it a “religion of state” (150). As an academic researching the mafia, Dickie also examines the connection between Italian Masonic Lodges and organized crime. Some leading Masons, such as Licio Gelli, the head of Italy's P2 Lodge in the 1970s, have collaborated profitably with terrorists and money-launderers.

Dickie states, “wherever the Empire went, Freemasonry went too” (246). Freemasonry acted as a gentlemen's club for imperial administrators and British soldiers and entrepreneurs, and it provided them a “ready-made support network in the Brotherhood” (247). Perhaps Freemasonry demonstrated loyalty to the empire and advocated British imperialism. Still, it showcased cosmopolitanism in the colonies, particularly in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, and India. In chapter 10, “Mother Lodges of the Empire,” Dickie shows how Freemasonry acted as a link throughout the British Empire and provided a common ground in an imperial society divided by color, caste, and class. For example, in India, all men could be Freemasons—from Rudyard Kipling (author of The White Man's Burden) to Motilal Nehru (father of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India). Within “the Craft,” all diverse men are Brothers “upon the Level,” just as Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem The Mother Lodge (1894, italics original):

The Craft is well research: Dickie made good use of Masonic archives. As a nonmember, Dickie balances historical facts and conspiracy theories, and he dismantles any suspicion that the Freemasons are preparing for world domination. Indeed, Freemasonry is still criticized for its secrecy. In 2018, the United Grand Lodge of England, for the first time in history, took a full-page advertisement, headlined “Enough is Enough,” in the Times, Daily Telegraph and Guardian, calling for an end to discrimination of its members. Why are people afraid of Freemasonry? Perhaps because through the centuries, Freemasons have been revolutionaries and reactionaries, progressives, and conservatives.