AMERICAN FREEMASONS: Three Centuries of Building Communities. Mark A Tabbert, National Heritage Museum, Lexington, Ma., New York University Press. NY and London, 2005. Hardback, xvii and 262 pages, £25.00. ISBN 0-8147-8292-2. Available from Letchworth’s, London.

The excellence of this book is unmistakable at first glance. It is a pleasure to handle, the print and layout are reader-friendly, and the illustrations, whenever you turn the page, are arresting. Put it on your coffee table by all means! But the book’s real value lies in what it seeks to do and how skilfully this is accomplished: …to explore and understand how generations of Masons have been exposed to the tenets of Freemasonry and have practiced them in public.
    It provides a documented overview of the impact of Freemasonry on American life and conversely how events and social trends have affected masonic life.
    This is, of course, exactly what has been badly lacking in British masonic research, and which the newly expanded Centre for Research into Freemasonry at Sheffield (England!) is excitingly promoting.
    Mark Tabbert splits this gigantic task into 11 chapters. Each deals with a specific period, which the author chooses to characterise by a topic. Thus we have, for example: Peaceable Citizens, Freemasonry in Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1730-1800; The Foundation of Every Virtue, Masonic Self-Improvement, 1835-1870; Relieve the Distressed, Mutual Benefit in the Industrial Age, 1870-1900; Plain Dealing, The Rotarian Age and Freemasonry’s New Personality, 1920-1941; They Are All Exhausted, Freemasons’ Service for New Communities, 1966-2000. In his mention of the vast number of masonic and derived fraternal organisations, Tabbert always manages to explain their rise and context. Facts are accurate.
    His grasp of sociological development is profound, as is his appreciation of the drivers within Freemasonry itself. The endnotes and reading lists are extensive. The book is strewn with beautifully-expressed insights, twinkling like the seven stars. It should be required reading for all members of the Board of General Purposes, and for any who aspire to such place.
    John Acaster