Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian AmericaFreemasons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias - why did millions of nineteenth century American men belong to these and other secret orders? In this engrossing study, Mark C. Carnes argues that fraternal rituals created a fantasy world antithetical to prevailing religious practices, gender roles, and institutional structures, offering a male religious counterculture that opposed an increasingly liberal and feminized Protestantism. |
