International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders

by Alan Axelrod

Provides information on a wide variety of secret societies and orders around the world, including the Knights Templar, the Hell Fire Club, the Ordo Templis Orientis, and the Freemasons

Genres: Nonfiction, Occult

287 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1997

About the author

Alan Axelrod, Ph.D., is a prolific author of history, business and management books. As of October 2018, he had written more than 150 books, as noted in an online introduction by Lynn Ware Peek before an interview with Axelrod on the National Public Radio station KPCW. Axelrod resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, now fully 25 years out of date, was weeded from my library’s reference collection, and judging by its condition was hardly used all the time it sat on the shelf. It would have fascinated a younger me, and it has some merit in regard to historical information today. Written in the Internet’s infancy, it misses a lot of more recent groups whose activities and existences are now much easier to track. As an encyclopedia, it is not really intended for a complete read-through, but doing so results in awareness that the major activity of American secret societies in the late-19th and early-20th century has been to provide insurance of one kind or another. An “Occult History of Insurance” would be a truly interesting research project for someone someday.

[Tyler Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best quick reference for fraternal organizations, well written and witty.