num_pages: 832
description: Secret societies have fundamentally shaped Americas cultural and political landscapes. In ways that are expected but never explicit the bonds made through the most elite of secret societies have won members Pulitzer Prizes governorships and even presidencies. At the apex of these institutions stands Yale University and its rumored twenty-six secret societies. Tracing a history that has intrigued and enthralled for centuries alluring the attention of such luminaries as Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald Skulls and Keys traces the history of Yales societies as they set the foundation for Americas future secret clubs and helped define the modern age of politics.But there is a progressive side to Yales secret societies that we rarely hear about one that in the cultural tumult of the nineteen-sixties resulted in the election of people of color women and gay men even in proportions beyond their percentages in the class. Its a side that is often overlooked in favor of sensational legends of blood oaths and toe-curling conspiracies. Dave Richards an alum of Yale sheds some light on the lesser known stories of Yales secret societies. He takes us through the history from Phi Beta Kappa in the American Revolution (originally a social and drinking society) through Skull and Bones and its rivals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While there have been articles and books on some of those societies there has never been a scholarly history of the system as a whole.
language: English
title: Skulls and Keys
publisher: Pegasus Books