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Stauffer, Vernon “New England and the Bavarian Illuminati”. Invisible College Press, Woodbridge, Va. 2005. Pbk. 319pp. Bibliog. ISBN 1-931468-22-2. $15.95 (US) / $24.94 (Can).

Now here is a book that confounds one's expectations! The cover gives no indication of when the events in the book occurred, and one may be forgiven for thinking that the Bavarian Illuminati had, indeed, set up in New England and were, even now, running the show.

But no. This is a sober historical essay, presented as part of the author's work for his Doctor of Philosophy, written in 1918, about events that transpired in New England at the turn of the eighteenth century.

The author, as befits an academic, gives a fulsome account of the background to the “Illuminati scare”, which will prove especially helpful for those not overly familiar to the ins and outs of the religious and political background. In particular, Stauffer, situates the events in the apparent “breakdown” of the Puritan order in New England which happened around the time of the American War of Independence, with much (shock horror) debauchery and other non-approved behaviour, not just amongst the lower orders but among the elders and “betters” as well.

Another important factor was the relationship of the nascent American state with both Great Britain and France. For some Britain was still “the enemy” and France was seen as the home of “liberty”and as the supporter of the new state. To others, however, the cultural ties to Britain remained very strong and there had been a substantial reaction against the excesses of the French Revolution – apparently some people took exception to the execution of the Royal family (!), whilst others were frightened by the possible recurrence of French expansionism, in particular across the Atlantic (One needs to remember the Lousianna purchase (1803) postdated the Illuminati “scare” but was also in response to the possibility of French expansionism.)

Having gone into far more detail than I have here, the author then turns his attention to a brief history of the Bavarian Illuminati, its connections with freemasonry and the “Enlightenment”, not to forget Adam Weishaupt's messianical and dictatorial approach to “liberty” (so self-evidently self-contradictory to everyone except himself it seems.) Stauffer shows very clearly that the Bavarian Illuminati was a totally ineffective force in Europe and one which the Duke of Bavaria had little trouble in closing down. And there the matter might have rested had not a handful authors, in particular Augustin Barruel and John Robison, hadn't decided to make out that the Bavarian Illuminati were at the heart of a world-wide conspiracy to overthrow all governments and established religions, and in particular had been the main instigators of the French revolution, and were even now, casting their net even further, into North America!

These authors relied on a combination of the accumulated documents of the Illuminati themselves (all very grandiose and hopelessly unrealistic) and exceptionally tenuous connections between people claimed to be members of the Illuminati and prominent members of the Jacobins and (before them) the Encyclopedists. Indeed wasn't the Enlightenment all one big Illuminati plot – or maybe it was the other way round. Anyway, into the mix was stirred Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism and any other prejudice that gave further piquancy to their writings and lo! A global conspiracy had been discovered.

Now this wouldn't have had any effect across the pond, except that a couple of preachers got hold of reviews of the books (and eventually the books themselves) and gave them such publicity they could in their sermons. The sermons were reproduced in certain sympathetic local papers, as part of a general anti-French / anti-democrat / anti-republican campaign. Even a few prominent academics got in on the act when it was alleged that there were active Illuminati cells in North America.

Fortunately there were saner voices to hand to point out the lack of evidence in the allegations, which seem to have been of the very tenuous guilt by association type, which boiled down to accusing certain masonic lodges of being “fronts” for the Illuminati (or maybe the French government pursuing Illuminati policies) when they were nothing of the sort. And after a while the whole fuss dissipated and everyone got with their lives and the whole matter was quietly forgotten.

Until Stauffer wrote his thesis. And let's not forget that in 1918, the USA was at war with a foreign power (though this time allied to France) which just so happened to include Bavaria, there was a fright about aliens (which included the mass deportation of “foreign” radicals, including people such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman) and so on. But that may have just been a co-incidence.

Inevitably when reading this, many readers might be struck by certain parallels between events described in the book and more recent scare stories, not to mention “French bashing”, frights about the destruction of Christianity, the American way of life and everything. Aka “The War on Terror”.Not to mention the use of “disinformation”etc.

The book is well presented, lacks an index, (it being an academic thesis this is not unusual of course, it just makes the book that bit less user-friendly) and is written in the style of the day, which, I suspect, some readers may find a little over-blown. That said, Stauffer presents himself as the voice of reason in his review of this episode of American history. His background chapters are most “illuminating”and go into substantial detail and even on that basis the book fulfills a useful function. His description of the details of the New England angle on the Bavarian Illuminati is equally informative and helps one understand just why and who was behind the gross exaggeration of the Illuminati “threat” and what political and religious (and the two were often intertwined) agenda proclaiming that threat served. The fact the book also throws some historical light onto contemporary events is an added bonus.

Pretty much required reading for those who want to read more about the Bavarian Illuminati from an informed historical perspective. I'll have to leave comment on whether more recent research has contradicted much of Stauffer's work to those who know more about the subject, but to me it looks definitive.

Well worth reading but maybe a tad specialised

7/10

Richard Alexander