should be noted here is its inherently interdisciplinary character. The nature of the masonic archive means that the researcher into freemasonry must use many different types of media: texts ranging from membership lists to rituals, jewels, banners, engravings, music and artefacts of many different kinds. 79 The interpretation of such materials requires a blend of scholarly skills. Mark Carnes noted how his researches required « excursions into the fields of religious history and theology, child rearing and developmental psychology, women’ s history and gender studies, and structural and cultural anthropology ». 80 While scholars frequently aspire towards interdisciplinarity, they rarely achieve it. The study of freemasonry may perhaps provide a model for interdisciplinary studies.
The themes I have discussed are at the forefront of research in the humanities and social sciences, but their roots lie in old thought, reflecting both the social changes of the 1960s, and particularly the response to the French événements of 1968, 81 and the challenge posed to Marxist models by the collapse of the Soviet Union. While the study of freemasonry can contribute a great deal to these intellectual concerns, even more exciting is the question of how it helped fashion completely new intellectual agendas. Will the events of 11 September 2001 have as big an impact on the intellectual world order as those of May 1968? It is too early to say, but there are hints that, whatever the upshot, reactions to freemasonry will be of new significance. The way in which the destruction of the World Trade Centre gave rise paradoxically to a new form of antisemitism has been well documented. 82 There has been little discussion of the new antimasonry. Within days of the attacks in New York, website postings attributed the attacks to the illuminati, drew parallels between the Twin Towers and the masonic columns Jachin and Boaz, and used spurious numerology to suggest masonic involvement in the attacks. 83 This is deplorable, but perhaps not surprising. More significant for the longterm is the way in which attacks on masonry form part of the extreme Muslim denunciation of western values. There has been a long history of Arab groups circulating
79
For an impression of a characteristic range of material see for example John M. Hamill,“ The Masonic Collections at the Lady Lever Art Gallery”, Journal of the History of Collections 4( 1992), pp. 285-295.
80
Secret Ritual and Manhood, p. ix.
81 cf. Peter Starr, Logics of Failed Revolt: French Theory After May“ 68, Stanford: Stanford University Press 1995.
82
See for example: www. adl. org / Anti _ semitism / speech. asp; www. time. com / time / europe / magazine / 2002 / 0617 / antisemitism / arab. html.
83
See for example www. texemarrs. com / 122001 / unleashing _ king _ of _ terrors. htm; www. theforbiddenknowledge. com / wtc / index02. htm; www. goroadachi. com / etemenanki / mysterybabylon. htm; www. cuttingedge. org / news / n1538. cfm; www. passitkit. com / coincidence _ or _ conspiracy. htm; www. rense. com / general15 / whoweneedfear. htm; www. dccsa. com / greatjoy / Barry. htm. This material changes frequently and can easily disappear. It urgently requires scholarly listing and analysis. See further Appendix, Documents No. 14 A-B, below. On the whole, this new twist to anti-masonry is not yet discussed by web sites devoted to documenting and analysing attacks on masonry, such as the excellent site maintained by the Grand Lodge of British Columbia: http:// freemasonry. bcy. ca / anti-masonry /
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