Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224226 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 531 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780977795383
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author

Customer Reviews

Indispensable research work
Possibly the most important English language work on the Bavarian Illuminati ever published to date. Based on documentation translated from French and German sources, Melanson keeps hysteria and paranoia to a minimum and provides an incredible reference work that outlines the history of the Order and its far-reaching cast of characters. Researched, footnoted and sourced in great detail, with documents never seen in English. Not the first book to pick up, as it assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge of the subject (see the Illuminati section of Vernon Stauffer's 'New England and the Bavarian Illuminati', which contains one of the best introductions on the Order to date), but VERY highly recommended to the serious scholar.

Only two reservations. First, the 'Skull & Bones' chapter seems to have flown in from another planet (or possibly a marketing department's request), and it stands out oddly. Second, Melanson makes no distinction between the different factions of Freemasonry that were expanding in continental Europe in the 1700s. Stauffer does a good job pointing out the differences in his book between the social club Anglo-Saxon Masons; the mystical Rosicrucian-style Masons who were attempting to make their brand more mysterious; and the Enlightenment social reformers of the Grand Orient of France who were involved in political movements. One style of Masonry was not the same as the next, and each had very different goals. But this is possibly a minor point and my own obsession.

I disagree strongly with Melanson's[...] website on a regular basis, and I think he and his fellow bloggers there seek boogeymen and a hyper-competent all-seeing, all-knowing criminal class of evildoers that control the world. But The Perfectibilists does not engage in the hysterics of that website. Melanson has produced a solid work of scholarship, and he is to be commended.

Groundbreaking
I have studied the Illuminati for years through various conspiracy books and websites. There can be a lot of confusion and misconceptions about who they were and what they were trying to accomplish. If I only had this book years ago, my research would have been faster and more complete. The book is well sourced, giving follow up reading, websites as well as known members. This is probably the most in depth volume on the Illuminati that you can find without having to learn German. Hopefully this trend will continue, and the public will take more interest in the enlightenment societies that shaped our nation and western civilization for that matter.

The ULTIMATE Illuminati Book! Accept nothing less!
As a long-ago Bircher & a now-mellow Christian bleeding-heart-right-wing-libertarian, THIS is the best book now in English on the historical Illuminati. I was amazed to see how much Conspiracy-Theory could now be documented and I was gladdened to see some old counter-productive myths totally debunked. The Illuminati was real, was a threat, and there are wanna-be Illuminati now who want to pose similar threats. BUT there is no indication that there IS an Illuminati with nigh-unstoppable power. I wish someone had done this book back in my Birchy phase of 1979-1982. I wouldn't have gone overboard one way and then dropped it totally when I got disillusioned.

From now on, no one has the right to opine on the Illuminati unless they either have read this book or shows themselves to be more knowledgeable than Terry Melanson.