The anti-Masonic movement during the 1820s and 1830s is sometimes related by scholars to the development of the American party system. Certainly individuals migrated to the Kw Nothing and Whig movements and eventually to the incipient Republican party, but more research is needed. No state was more influenced by anti-Masonry than Vermont, where many of the lodges closed their doors because of the hysteria about Masonic influence. So this scarce volume is welcome background to a puzzling period in political history.
Guillermo De Los Reyes is Associate Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of Herencias Secretas: Masoneria, politica y sociedad en Mexico (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, 2009). He holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.A. and B.A. from the Universidad de las Americas-Puebla.