Secret Societies of America's Elite: From the Knights Templar to Skull and Bones »

Steven Sora has been researching historical enigmas since 1982 and is the author of The Triumph of the Sea Gods, The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar and Secret Societies of America’s Elite. He lives in Easton, Pennsylvania.

An expose of the dark and critical role secret societies play within the ruling families in America and their influence on American democracy, current events, and world history.

• Reveals the enormous influence secret societies still have on contemporary American life.

• Shows how the secret Masonic cells that smuggled in the democratic ideals inspiring the American Revolution also enabled the future elite of the new society to build huge fortunes.

Elite and secret societies have always been a major force in the history of Western civilization. The alliances formed in secret societies such as the Knights Templar, the Knights of Christ, and the Freemasons transcended patriotism and religious beliefs and had a powerful influence on the establishment of the United States of America. While these secret associations of merchants, smugglers, occultists, gamblers, spies, and slavers succeeded in freeing the United States from foreign domination, the dark side is that the elite used their secret connections to further their own wealth and power. These secret cells did not hesitate to sponsor the assassination of a president and even attempted to break up the union on several occasions when it was deemed expedient.

From the Sons of Liberty and the Essex Junto to the Ku Klux Klan, secret societies have played critical roles in building the fortunes of America's elite. Now Steven Sora reveals in alarming detail how secretive societies continue to wield power even today as organizations such as Yale's Skull & Bones unite America's modern ruling families as strongly as Masonic Lodges once connected the Astors, Livingstons, and Roosevelts. Their immense power and wealth allow this elite to control America to an even greater degree than the Templars once dominated Europe.

Steven Sora has been researching historical enigmas since 1982 and is the author of The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar. He lives in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Publishers Weekly

Despite the promise of its somewhat lurid title and cover, this odd combination of scholarship and speculation does not really have what it takes to capture the attention of a general reading audience. Its extremely broad theme is that "from the time of the Crusades to modern years, a handful of families have controlled the course of world events and have built their own status and wealth through collective efforts and intermarriage." Sora, who covered much of the same material in his earlier The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar, connects the leaders of the 14th-century French military group the Knights Templar to 18th-century pirates such as Captain Kidd as well as Revolutionary heroes such as Benjamin Franklin. Sora provides some interesting insights into each subject: the business organization and acumen of the Knights Templar made them, in effect, "the first ever multinational corporation"; William Kidd was a businessman with ties to Scottish Masonic private clubs; and Franklin's efforts to keep the colonials supplied and funded meant that he "operated through Masonic groups in England and France, and his partners in the pro-American war efforts were more often than not hedonists, occultists, Rosicrucians, slave traders and spies." But his general attempt to connect Masonic groups to more current events like the J.F.K. assassination is on far shakier ground, and a final chapter on Yale's legendary Skull and Bones fraternity seems tacked on to book only to allow Sora to argue-but never prove-that "coincidences point to an elite handful of interlocking relationships that have a hold over national affairs." (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Secret Societies of America's Elite
From the Knights Templar to Skull and Bones

Acknowledgments Introduction: Born in Blood
PART ONE
Piracy: A Merry and a Short Life Chapter 1 The New World Order Chapter 2 Brothers to Pirates and Corsairs Chapter 3 Under a Black Flag Chapter 4 Skeletons in the Closet
PART TWO
The Lodge and the Revolution Chapter 5 Smugglers, Patriots, and Masons Chapter 6 Franklin and the Masonic Underground Chapter 7 The Merchants of War Chapter 8 The Bribe That Won the War Chapter 9 One Nation Under the Great Architect
PART THREE
From the Sacred to the Profane Chapter 10 The Slave Traders Chapter 11 Red Cross and Black Cargo Chapter 12 Master Masons and Their Slaves Chapter 13 The Masonic Betrayal Chapter 14 The Opium Brotherhood Chapter 15 Opium: From the Lodge to the Den Chapter 16 Wealth: The Legacy of the Opium Trade Chapter 17 The Power of the New Skull and Bones
Notes Index