The complete idiot's guide to freemasonry - S. Brent Morris

Everyone and their sisters and brothers are waiting for the release of Dan Brown's next book - December 2006, if we can believe the rumors - but we do know that it's going to be called The Solomon Key, referring to Kryptos Sculpture at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and that it deals with the Freemasons - or, more formally, the Free and Accepted Masons: a secret society with about five million members, mainly in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.
American freemasonry is older than this country, and many of the Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and George Washington were masons - and eager readers are already picturing Robert Langdon racing against the clock again, this time in the streets of our nation's capital rather than Paris.
Quick - anyone know anything about the Masons?
Are they really as evil as some people say?

In The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry, an expert author reveals the truths and dispels the myths that have surrounded the Freemasons for hundreds of years:

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Were the first masons 14th-century stone masons and cathedral builders, or can Freemasonry really be traced back as far as Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine?

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The Masonic insistence on the belief in a Supreme Being

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The Masons and the Knights Templar

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True or false: the Masons coordinated the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

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How are Masons initiated, and exactly what goes on in a Masonic lodge?

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What's the difference between the York Rite and the Scottish Rite, and are there women and African American Freemasons?

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The Masons in the streets of Washington, DC: a tour