New York University Press

American Freemasons

Three Centuries of Building Communities

Mark A. Tabbert

"Until now no single book has traced the progress of the fraternity from the early eighteenth century to the early twenty-first. Mark Tabbert expertly guides readers through that extraordinary history. This beautifully-illustrated book is the best introduction to the Masonic past now available for brothers and for curious outsiders."

--Steven C. Bullock, author of Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840

Volunteer associations of all varieties form the foundation of American history and culture. By far, the oldest and largest of all American volunteer associations is Freemasonry, but what exactly is Freemasonry? Why have three centuries of American men--from Paul Revere and Ben Franklin to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Harry Truman and Thurgood Marshall--been drawn to its rituals, symbols and precepts? And why did John Quincy Adams call it "a seed of evil,which can never produce any good?"

Published in conjunction with the National Heritage Museum, this extravagantly illustrated volume offers a brief overview of Freemasonry's origins in 17th-century Scotland and England before exploring its evolving role in American history, from the Revolution through the labor and civil rights movements, and into the 21st century. American Freemasons explores some of the causes for the rise and fall of membership in the fraternity and why it has attracted men in such large numbers for centuries. Tabbert also examines the relationship between the privacy of a Masonic lodge and the public environment of the American community.

American Freemasons is the perfect introduction to understanding a society that, while shrouded in mystery, has played an integral role in the lives and communities of millions of Americans.

Mark A. Tabbert is a curator at the Museum of National Heritage in Lexington, MA. His work has appeared in The Northern Light , Heredom , and American Studies , among other places. He lives in Arlington, MA.

$29.95
ISBN 0814782922
272 pages Cloth
Publication date: 6/15/2005

Crossing the Sound
The Rise of Atlantic American Communities in Seventeenth-Century Eastern Long Island

Faren Siminoff

In the seventeenth century, eastern Long Island was considered to be part of New England—a tumultuous place where European settlers struggled alongside Native American communities to create an Atlantic American world. In Crossing the Sound, Faren R. Siminoff skillfully weaves new data with sophisticated theoretical analysis to demonstrate that the development of this region was based more on complex interactions between settlers and native peoples than on clashes between the two groups. English and Dutch colonists did not simply transport traditional systems of land ownership, political organization, and control of economic resources to the Northeast. Rather, both settlers and natives underwent a process of negotiation, resulting in a hybrid society that adapted and reworked new and old patterns of life. Using eastern Long Island as a case study, Crossing the Sound offers a fresh interpretation of colonial relationships between settlers and natives by tracing social, cultural, and political exchanges between groups.

Faren R. Siminoff is assistant professor of history at Nassau Community College.

ISBN 0814793924
280 pages Cloth
$40.00
Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State

Daniel L. Dreisbach

No phrase in American letters has had a more profound influence on church-state law, policy, and discourse than Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between church and state," and few metaphors have provoked more passionate debate. Introduced in an 1802 letter to the Danbury, Connecticut Baptist Association, Jefferson's "wall" is accepted by many Americans as a concise description of the U.S. Constitution's church-state arrangement and conceived as a virtual rule of constitutional law.

Despite the enormous influence of the "wall" metaphor, almost no scholarship has investigated the text of the Danbury letter, the context in which it was written, or Jefferson's understanding of his famous phrase. Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State offers an in-depth examination of the origins, controversial uses, and competing interpretations of this powerful metaphor in law and public policy.

Daniel L. Dreisbach is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice, Law, and Society at American University. He is the editor of Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson's Virginia and Religion and Politics in the Early Republic.

$19.00
ISBN 0814719368
304 pages
Paperback
Publication date: 10/1/2003

Jim Crow New York
A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship, 1777-1877

Edited by David N. Gellman and David Quigley

In 1821, New York's political leaders met for over two months to rewrite the state's constitution. The new document secured the right to vote for the great mass of white men while denying all but the wealthiest African-American men access to the polls.
Jim Crow New York introduces students and scholars alike to this watershed event in American political life. This action crystallized the paradoxes of free black citizenship, not only in the North but throughout the nation: African Americans living in New York would no longer be slaves. But would they be citizens?

Jim Crow New York provides readers with both scholarly analysis and access to a series of extraordinary documents, including extensive excerpts from the resonant speeches made at New York's 1821 constitutional convention and additional documents which recover a diversity of voices, from lawmakers to African-American community leaders, from newspaper editors to activists. The text is further enhanced by extensive introductory essays and headnotes, maps, illustrations, and a detailed bibliographic essay.

David N. Gellman is Assistant Professor of History at DePauw University. David Quigley is Assistant Professor of History at Boston College.

ISBN 081473149X
384 pages
Cloth
$65.00
 Publication date: 6/1/2003
Also available in Paperback

March 24, 2005

Email: nyu.press@nyu.edu Orders: orders.nyu.press@nyu.edu