Description
Secret Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Present Day
Throughout history Man's search for knowledge has revealed strange truths. The arcane wisdom developed in ancient Mediterranean civilizations had been preserved and held sacred over centuries but in the Medieval and Renaissance eras these ideas re-emerged with extraordinary power, and have fascinated us ever since.
A Brief History of Secret Societies explores the allure and history of esoteric religious beliefs and investigates how these societies have come to gain a powerful hold upon the popular imagination: the Knights Templar, the quest for the Holy Grail, the Hermetic Philosophers, Rosicrucians, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as well as the present-day secrets of the Freemasons, and darker groups such as the KKK, P2 and the Mafia. David V. Barrett brilliantly presents a balanced history of our desire for secret knowledge and of the societies that preserve it.
ISBN:9781845296155
