Following the appointment of its first aristocratic Grand Masters in the 1720s and in the wake of its connections to the scientific Enlightenment, 'Free and Accepted' Masonry became part of Britain's national profile and the largest and most influential of Britain's extensive clubs and societies. The organisation did not evolve naturally from the mediaeval guilds and religious orders that pre-dated it but was reconfigured radically by a largely self-appointed inner core at London's most influential lodge, the Horn Tavern. Freemasonry became a vehicle for the expression of their philosophical and political views, and 'the Craft' attracted an aspirational membership across the upper middling and gentry. Through an examination of previously unexplored primary documentation, Foundations contributes to an understanding of contemporary English political and social culture and explores how Freemasonry became a mechanism that promoted the interests of the Hanoverian establishment and connected the metropolitan and provincial elites. The book explores social networks centred on the aristocracy, parliament, the learned and professional societies, and the magistracy, and provides pen portraits of the key individuals who spread the Masonic message. "Foundations & Schism" (Sussex Academic, 2013), have been described as 'the most important books on English Freemasonry published in recent times', providing 'a precise, social context for the invention of English Freemasonry'. Berman's analysis throws a new and original light on the formation and development of what rapidly became a national and international phenomenon.

Following the appointment of its first aristocratic Grand Masters in the 1720s and in the wake of its connections to the scientific Enlightenment, 'Free and Accepted' Masonry became part of Britain's national profile and the largest and most influential of Britain's extensive clubs and societies. The organisation did not evolve naturally from the mediaeval guilds and religious orders that pre-dated it but was reconfigured radically by a largely self-appointed inner core at London's most influential lodge, the Horn Tavern. Freemasonry became a vehicle for the expression of their philosophical and political views, and the 'Craft' attracted an aspirational membership across the upper middling and gentry. Through an examination of previously unexplored primary documentation, Foundations contributes to an understanding of contemporary English political and social culture and explores how Freemasonry became a mechanism that promoted the interests of the Hanoverian establishment and connected the metropolitan and provincial elites. The book explores social networks centred on the aristocracy, parliament, the learned and professional societies, and the magistracy, and provides pen portraits of the key individuals who spread the Masonic message. Foundations and Schism (Sussex Academic, 2013), have been described as 'the most important books on English Freemasonry published in recent times', providing 'a precise, social context for the invention of English Freemasonry'. Berman's analysis throws a new and original light on the formation and development of what rapidly became a national and international phenomenon.

Ric Berman examines the genesis of freemasonry in South Carolina and Georgia and how the lodge gained status and influence as a result of the prominence of its leading members. Although there were other clubs and societies that may have been more exclusive, none possessed the deemed antiquity and reputation of freemasonry. Indeed, the lodge carved out a position as the South's leading social forum to the extent that membership became self-reinforcing. 'Loyalists & Malcontents' explores the multiple interconnections that made up the cousinage of planters, merchants and lawyers that dominated the Deep South, and provides portraits of the patriots and loyalists that gave freemasonry its political influence before, during and after America's War of Independence. The book sheds new light on the origins of freemasonry in the Deep South and throws into relief its close interaction with American politics and society. The principal appendices offer insights into slavery in the colonial South and into America's masonic shift away from the Grand Lodge of England towards an embrace of 'Antients' freemasonry.

'Foundations - new light on the formation and early years of the Grand Lodge of England' explores the evolution of Freemasonry from the mid-fourteenth century through to the creation of the first Grand Lodge of England in 1717. Ric Berman challenges old Masonic myths, explains the interconnections between Freemasonry, Grand Lodge and Britain's new Hanoverian government, and outlines how and why its leaders positioned the Craft as a bastion against the Jacobite followers of James Stuart - 'the king over the water'. The book provides a context for the tercentenary of the formation of the Grand Lodge of England - the world's first grand lodge.

Loyalists & Malcontents tells the story of Freemasonry in South Carolina and Georgia in its first half century from the mid-1730s to the War of Independence and beyond. The book shows how the lodges at Charleston and Savannah were linked to their counterparts in Britain, and describes the planters, lawyers and merchants who comprised Southern Freemasonry's elites. It is a revised, illustrated, second edition of that first published in 2015.

Ric Berman's history of the origins of Modern Freemasonry and the Grand Lodge of England outlines the Enlightenment principles of religious toleration, meritocracy, democracy and civility embedded in the 1723 'Constitutions of Freemasons'. He provides the political and social context, and explains the role of the main Masonic protagonists.

Martin Folkes (1690-1754): Newtonian, Antiquary, Connoisseur is a cultural and intellectual biography of the only President of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Sir Isaac Newton's protégé, astronomer, mathematician, freemason, art connoisseur, Voltaire's friend and Hogarth's patron, his was an intellectually vibrant world. Folkes was possibly the best-connected natural philosopher and antiquary of his age, an epitome of Enlightenment sociability, and yet he was a surprisingly neglected figure, the long shadow of Newton eclipsing his brilliant disciple. A complex figure, Folkes edited Newton's posthumous works in biblical chronology, yet was a religious skeptic and one of the first members of the gentry to marry an actress. His interests were multidisciplinary, from his authorship of the first complete history of the English coinage, to works concerning ancient architecture, statistical probability, and astronomy. Rich archival material, including Folkes's travel diary, correspondence, and his library and art collections permit reconstruction through Folkes's eyes of what it was like to be a collector and patron, a Masonic freethinker, and antiquarian and virtuoso in the days before 'science' became sub-specialised. Folkes's virtuosic sensibility and possible role in the unification of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society tells against the historiographical assumption that this was the age in which the 'two cultures' of the humanities and sciences split apart, never to be reunited. In Georgian England, antiquarianism and 'science' were considered largely part of the same endeavour.

Freemasonry is part of a long tradition of Western mysticism, steeped in a long-standing and eclectic mixture of historical fact and legend. Much of the ritual and symbolism prevalent in Freemasonry has developed over many centuries and relies heavily on notions inherited from the customs and practices of medieval stonemasons. Members are still taught its precepts using ritual dramas that follow ancient forms and use stonemasons' tools as allegorical guides.This absorbing and informative book provides an account of the history and legends of the Freemasons, from its links with the Knights Templar, its explorations into alchemy and the hermetic tradition, through the age of Enlightenment and the founding fathers of the USA, to the Victorians and up to the present day.

With the history of the Rosicrucian fraternity predating that of Freemasonry, masonic author Ossian Lang examines clues as to what pre-existing elements were incorporated in modern Freemasonry, when Grand Lodge was founded, a century later.