I bought this book because I cannot quite can get my head around the: “The History and Evolution of the American Masonic Ritual” as the subtitle of this book goes. Davis answers quite some questions, but it seems that he assumes that his audience has sufficient knowledge of contemporary American Freemasonry.
The book comes with an extraordinary lengthy introduction to the actual subject, but I understand why. Davis starts at the dawn of modern Freemasonry in England. He works himself through prehistory (“Old Charges”), early catechisms, exposures, the beginning of the third degree and most importantly, the different types of lodges that were founded in what was to become the USA.
Of course there was the ‘premiere Grand Lodge’ (1717), but there were other early Grand Lodges such as that of Ireland (1725), Scotland (1736) and more, who all chartered lodges in the colonies. This led to a great variety of different ways of working, results of which are still visible today in spite of many and lengthy attempts at uniformity.
And so you get the story of the lecturers / ritualists, early “monitors” and “cyphers” and how, in the end, large parts of American Freemasonry started to be somewhat similar, while other (grand) lodges wanted to stick to their ancient practices.
What I miss in this book is that the reader may get an idea of what is meant with “Preston/Webb”, but apparently the author thinks that his audience knows how the famous “York Rite” came to be. It is just suddenly there. Also differences in “Masonic ritual” are not as much different rites in the book, but variations to what is commonly known as “Preston/Webb”, while I assume that there are indeed different rites in the USA.
The book sure is interesting and I especially applaud Davis for being clear about the fact that different early Masonic traditions found their way to the colonies. This explains the patchwork of American Freemasonry, but an extra chapter about the York and other rites would be welcome.
2013 Building Stone Publishing, isbn 061585382X
