Often traced back to the stonemason guilds of the Middle Ages, freemasons were supposedly found among all the great minds of the Renaissance, including Da Vinci. Regardless, the movement really took off in the 1700s, when anyone who was anyone was a freemason—from George IV and Mozart to George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Over the next hundred years or so, the freemasons claimed such illustrious personages as Charles Darwin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Louis Armstrong, General Douglas MacArthur, W.C. Fields, Herbert Hoover, and many others as members. Even today, Freemasonry boasts Masonic lodges all over the globe.

For thousands of years, one clandestine organization has been rumored to control the destinies of men, cities, even nations. The Everything Freemasons Book examines all the aspects of this fascinating organization, including: