Inside the Brotherhood: Further Secrets of the Freemasons

This is a crucial survey of Freemasonry, building on (and in some places correcting) Stephen Knight's book. Despite some slightly sensationalist packaging, Short has produced a sober assessment which, while critical, avoids silly conspiracy theories. Short does catalogue a number of abuses and questionable practices, but these are mostly attributed to the complacency and incompetence of an unaccountable leadership. With the scandals that have bedevilled other institutions since Short's writing, such a portrait is all too-believable. The book deals mainly with the UK, but there is also a very useful chapter on the P-2 affair which discusses Italian-language materials.

The 1996-97 Session the Home Affairs Committee of the British House of Commons, published "Freemasonry in the Police and the Judiciary: Volume I" with a recomendation that, "police officers, magistrates, judges, and crown prosecutors should be required to register membership of any secret society and that the record should be available publicly." This first step to control Masonic corruption in government can be credited in part to the Martin Short's book "Inside the Brotherhood" and Stephen Knight's book "The Brotherhood". Required reading for anyone interested in understanding the institutionalised corruption of Freemasonry's good-old-boy network.