Towards a Christian Republic: Antimasonry and the Great Transition in New England, 1826-1836

In the wake of the American and French Revolutions, the Order of the Masons gained popularity in Europe and America. A cosmopolitan and tolerant Order, reflecting in many ways the best aspects of the Enlightenment, the Masons were also a secret and exclusive society, open only to men and made up of members from the middle-class and upper-class strata of small towns. When former Mason William Morgan disappeared in western New York in 1826 after threatening to publish an exposé on Freemasonry, opposition to the group mounted, eventually leading to the formation of the Antimasonry Party. Accusing the Masons of undemocratic practices that endangered fundamental civic and religious rights, the Antimasons soon became a force in state and national politics. Paul Goodman's magisterial study is a sweeping reinterpretation of the ideology, class formation, religious tension, and gender conflict in early 19th-century America. A book of vast learning and great power, Towards a Christian Republic is certain to attract wide attention.