Review: History has many facets
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2010
Blanchard & Beecher'sSecret Societiesis a product of it's time.  It reviews the fear and distrust many late 19th century thinkers had for societies such as the Freemasons, Marxists, and Anarchists, as well as their contempt for non-Christian religions.  When reading this book, however, it is important to keep in mind that these are the thoughts of two individuals who even in their day, were seen as fringe writers dealing in fear and paranoia.  Beecher, for example, was the abolitionist brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wroteUncle Tom's Cabinwhile Jonathan Blanchard was an abolitionist preacher well known for his inflamatory anti-masonic rhetoric.  One of their primary purposes in publishing this work was to reinforce the superiority of American-style Protestant Christianity over Hinduism and Islam, both of which had achieved a great deal of popularity among the New England academic and economic elites.  Freemasonry, another major topic in the book, had recently been involved in an event known as the "Paris Commune", where a group of Marxists and Anarchists temporarily gained political control over Paris.  Both Blanchard and Beecher were concerned that this movement would endanger stability in the United States where memories of both the Civil War and Reconstruction were livid, angry scars on the psyche of the nation.Secret Societies, therefore, provides keen insight into the logic and rational behind the deep concern felt by a generation of Americans that had seen their country torn by civil war and feared the rising popularity of Marx-inspired secret societies could lead directly to a renewal of widespread violence.