Enjoy the First Seven Minutes of this Eleventh Episode of THE WIDE MASONIC WORLD - Join hosts Robert Cooper and Mark Tabbert for a in-depth conversation with Prof. Rob Collis, Ph.D.. He is an Assistant Professor of History at Drake University, Des Moines.

Prof. Collis teaches European and global history, specializing in Russian history (particularly in the eighteenth century) and the history of Western esotericism. He also teaches a course on world history since 1750 and a Cold War Through Film class that examines movies from the 1940s to the 1980s from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Since 2023, Collis has also been supervising students in their Capstone research papers on European history.

On 18 August 1784, Ivan Sergeevich Bariatinskii, the Russian ambassador

to France, wrote a report to Empress Catherine II, on her orders, about

Franz Anton Mesmer and animal magnetism.1 The ambassador’s despatch

was written a mere seven days after the presentation of a report to King

Louis XVI by a specially-appointed Royal Commission composed of

five scientists of the French Academy of Sciences (Benjamin Franklin,

Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Jean d’Arcet and Michel-

Joseph Majault). These five eminent figures signed their names to a report

that largely dismissed the purported curative powers touted by Mesmer.

. . . . the brief dalliance with forms of animal magnetism in 1786

foreshadowed (as did early expressions of romanticism) the more sustained

challenge to Enlightenment ideals that occurred in the post-Napoleonic

era in the Russian Empire and Europe as a whole: a spiritual curiosity and

anxiety that emboldened individuals to seek unorthodox and personal

channels to the divine; a heightened sense of the unexplored potential of

the realm of the unconscious within the human mind; and a willingness

to embrace unconventional methods of healing that drew on older theories

of occult philosophy. An understanding of this initial, albeit fleeting,

attraction to animal magnetism among the Russian nobility in the 1780s

provides an essential grounding for further studies that can examine the

resurgence of interest in the varied forms of animal magnetism in the

decades after 1815, which has yet to receive in-depth scholarly attention.

. . . . the brief dalliance with forms of animal magnetism in 1786

foreshadowed (as did early expressions of romanticism) the more sustained

challenge to Enlightenment ideals that occurred in the post-Napoleonic

era in the Russian Empire and Europe as a whole: a spiritual curiosity and

anxiety that emboldened individuals to seek unorthodox and personal

channels to the divine; a heightened sense of the unexplored potential of

the realm of the unconscious within the human mind; and a willingness

to embrace unconventional methods of healing that drew on older theories

of occult philosophy. An understanding of this initial, albeit fleeting,

attraction to animal magnetism among the Russian nobility in the 1780s

provides an essential grounding for further studies that can examine the

resurgence of interest in the varied forms of animal magnetism in the

decades after 1815, which has yet to receive in-depth scholarly attention.

ROBERT COLLIS, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of History at Drake University, Des Moines.

He teaches European and global history, specializing in Russian history (particularly in the eighteenth century) and the history of Western esotericism. He also teaches a course on world history since 1750 and a Cold War Through Film class that examines movies from the 1940s to the 1980s from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Since 2023, Collis has also been supervising students in their Capstone research papers on European history.

Enjoy the first Eight Minutes of the Tenth Episode of THE WIDE MASONIC WORLD - Join hosts Robert Cooper and Mark Tabbert for a in-depth conversation with Prof. Chernoh M. Sesay Jr., Ph.D.. He is a Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University, Chicago.

The investment of African American Freemasonry in abolition, respectability,

and literacy reflected an anxious intersection between dissent and incorporation.

Furthermore, although the first black lodge represented a small and self-selected

group, black Masonic thought described black identity in the broadest descriptive and

discursive terms. In seeming paradox, the desire of black Freemasons to be respectable

also reflected their demand for recognition as a function of abolitionism and

historiographical revision. In consequence, the earliest African American lodge of

Freemasons labored to occupy two opposing positions simultaneously, that of a

counter-public and that of a universal public. This essay examines this tension to

argue that the same traits that made black Freemasonry unique and novel- its narrow

self-selection, its abolitionist origins, and its arguments in print- also structured its

conscious drive to represent African Americans in debates about freedom, racial

equality, and Masonic history.

Published in The Journal of African American Studies, September 2013, Vol. 17, No. 3 (September2013), pp. 380-398

Assoc. Prof. Chernoh M. Sesay, Jr., Ph.D. is an historian of the Black Atlantic and of colonial North American and antebellum United States history whose research focuses on the intersection of religion, black political thought, identity, and community formation. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Black Boston and the Making of African-American Freemasonry: Leadership, Religion, and Community in Early America. In this study, the early development of black Freemasonry, from its founder, Prince Hall, to its prominent antebellum member, David Walker, becomes a prism through which to consider various relationships between religion, gender, community, and interracial and black politics. He is also exploring how different forms of nineteenth and twentieth-century African American historicism were comprised of aligned and competing theological and secular concerns. He has published a book chapter in addition to articles in the New England Quarterly, the Journal of African American Studies, and the Forum for European Contributions to African American Studies. In addition to book reviews written for the Massachusetts Historical Review, H-Net Law, the Journal of the Early Republic, and the Journal of American History, Dr. Sesay has also written for Black Perspectives, the scholarly blog of the African American Intellectual History Society.

The investment of African American Freemasonry in abolition, respectability,

and literacy reflected an anxious intersection between dissent and incorporation.

Furthermore, although the first black lodge represented a small and self-selected

group, black Masonic thought described black identity in the broadest descriptive and

discursive terms. In seeming paradox, the desire of black Freemasons to be respectable

also reflected their demand for recognition as a function of abolitionism and

historiographical revision. In consequence, the earliest African American lodge of

Freemasons labored to occupy two opposing positions simultaneously, that of a

counter-public and that of a universal public. This essay examines this tension to

argue that the same traits that made black Freemasonry unique and novel- its narrow

self-selection, its abolitionist origins, and its arguments in print- also structured its

conscious drive to represent African Americans in debates about freedom, racial

equality, and Masonic history.

Published in The Journal of African American Studies, September 2013, Vol. 17, No. 3 (September2013), pp. 380-398

Assoc. Prof. Chernoh M. Sesay, Jr., Ph.D. is an historian of the Black Atlantic and of colonial North American and antebellum United States history whose research focuses on the intersection of religion, black political thought, identity, and community formation. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Black Boston and the Making of African-American Freemasonry: Leadership, Religion, and Community in Early America. In this study, the early development of black Freemasonry, from its founder, Prince Hall, to its prominent antebellum member, David Walker, becomes a prism through which to consider various relationships between religion, gender, community, and interracial and black politics. He is also exploring how different forms of nineteenth and twentieth-century African American historicism were comprised of aligned and competing theological and secular concerns. He has published a book chapter in addition to articles in the New England Quarterly, the Journal of African American Studies, and the Forum for European Contributions to African American Studies. In addition to book reviews written for the Massachusetts Historical Review, H-Net Law, the Journal of the Early Republic, and the Journal of American History, Dr. Sesay has also written for Black Perspectives, the scholarly blog of the African American Intellectual History Society.

Enjoy the first Seven Minutes of this Ninth Episode of THE WIDE MASONIC WORLD - Join hosts Robert Cooper and Mark Tabbert for a in-depth conversation with internationally revered Masonic historian Pierre Mollier. He is the retire Director of Library, Museum and Archives of the Grand Orient of France.

From its introduction in Paris around 1725 until the end of the 1760s, French Freemasonry would repeatedly endeavor to organize itself It first recognized the authority of a Grand Master for France in 1728, thereby freeing itself from English tutelage. In 1735, it endowed itself with statutes, establishing a Grand Lodge for the first time. However, this First Grand Lodge did not seem to hold much authority over the lodges of the Kingdom. At regular intervals June 24, 1745; July 4, 1755; May 19, 1760; and April 17, 1763- it would try to establish its supremacy by promulgating statutes. Each of these texts insists on the authority it claims to have over the lodges of the kingdom, but to little effect. Until the 1760s, the lodges existed in semi-independence. Older lodges established newer ones and each corresponded with various others, depending on the circumstances. The unity of French Freemasonry could only be found in the fact that all recognized the Grand Master. From 1743 to 1771, he would be a prominent figure in Louis XV's France, namely, the Count of Clermont, a prince du sang. However, the rule of Louis de Bourbon-Conde was only a symbolic patronage and relatively distant, as was the custom during the Ancien Regime; the Grand Master never intervened in the management of the Order. It was, however, in his name that, in 1761, the first real attempt was made to establish a central authority over the lodges.

Pierre Mollier is a graduate of Sciences Po (Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris), he holds a master's degree in Religious Studies (École pratique des hautes études, section V, La Sorbonne).

Please enjoy this free audio podcast of Pierre Mollier's paper. He is the retire Director of Library, Museum and Archives of the Grand Orient of France.

From its introduction co Paris around 1725 until the end of the 1760s, French Freemasonry would repeatedly endeavor to organize itself It first recognized the authority of a Grand Master for France in 1728, thereby freeing itself from English tutelage. In 1735, it endowed itself with statutes, establishing a Grand Lodge for the first time. However, this First Grand Lodge did not seem to hold much authority over the lodges of the Kingdom. At regular intervals June 24, 1745; July 4, 1755; May 19, 1760; and April 17, 1763- it would try to establish its supremacy by promulgating statutes. Each of these texts insists on the authority it claims to have over the lodges of the kingdom, but to little effect. Until the 1760s, the lodges existed in semi-independence. Older lodges established newer ones and each corresponded with various others, depending on the circumstances. The unity of French Freemasonry could only be found in the fact that all recognized the Grand Master. From 1743 to 1771, he would be a prominent figure in Louis XV's France, namely, the Count of Clermont, a prince du sang. However, the rule of Louis de Bourbon-Conde was only a symbolic patronage and relatively distant, as was the custom during the Ancien Regime; the Grand Master never intervened in the management of the Order. It was, however, in his name that, in 1761, the first real attempt was made to establish a central authority over the lodges.

Pierre Mollier is a French historian and freemason, born in Lyon in 1961. A graduate of Sciences Po (Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris), he holds a master's degree in Religious Studies (École pratique des hautes études, section V, La Sorbonne).

Enjoy the first Eight minute of the Eighth Episode of THE WIDE MASONIC WORLD - Join hosts Robert Cooper and Mark Tabbert for a in-depth conversation with Christopher Kolakowski, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Veterans' Museum, Madison.

We discuss his paper on the life and times of LT. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, Jr. MH and his son General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, MH. Both served as Generals in the US Army, both earned the Congressional Medal of Honor and both were Freemasons. MacArthur the Elder joined in Arkansas, and MacArthur the younger joined in the Philippines.

Along the way Chris, Bob and Mark share various stories and insights into military Freemasonry, Freemasons in the US Civil War, the Pacific and Burma Theaters of the the Second World War and the Korean War.

Christopher L. Kolakowski is Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum,

https://wisvetsmuseum.com/

a position he has held since January 6, 2020. He was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Va. but his mother’s family has very deep roots in the Badger State. Chris received his BA in History and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College, and his MA in Public History from the State University of New York at Albany.

Chris has spent his career interpreting and preserving American military history with the National Park Service, New York State government, the Rensselaer County (NY) Historical Society, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Kentucky State Parks, and the U.S. Army. Between 2013 and2020 he was the Executive Director of the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, VA.

He has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of military history and leadership from 1775 to the present and was the inaugural Director of the General George Patton Museum and Center of Leadership at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Chris has published three books on the Civil War and three on World War II in the Pacific. He is a reviewer and contributor to the Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs and a Senior Fellow at the Consortium of Indo-Pacific Researchers. His latest book, titled Tenth Army Commander, is about General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who was killed in battle on Okinawa.

Chris is a Past Master Landmark Lodge #41 in Versailles KY, serving in the East in 2008.

A Short overview of the life of LT. General Arthur MacArthur and his son and Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Both earn the Congressional Medal of Honor and both were Freemasons.

Arthur MacArthur Jr. (June 2, 1845 – September 5, 1912) was a lieutenant general of the United States Army. He became the military Governor-General of the American-occupied Philippines in 1900; his term ended a year later due to clashes with the civilian governor, future-U.S. President William Howard Taft.

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and awarded it for his WWII service in the Philippines. He is one of only five people to hold the rank of General of the Army, and the only person to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army.

In addition to their both being promoted to the rank of general officer, Arthur MacArthur Jr. and Douglas MacArthur also share the distinction of having been the first father and son to each be awarded a Medal of Honor.

Christopher L. Kolakowski is the Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, a position he has held since January 6, 2020. He received his BA in History and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College, and his MA in Public History from the State University of New York at Albany.

Chris has spent his career interpreting and preserving American military history with the National Park Service, New York State government, the Rensselaer County (NY) Historical Society, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Kentucky State Parks, the U.S. Army, and was the Executive Director of the Douglas MacArthur Memorial and Museum from 2013 to 2020.

Chris has published three books on the Civil War and three on World War II in the Pacific. He is a reviewer and contributor to the Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs and a Senior Fellow at the Consortium of Indo-Pacific Researchers.

Lastly, Chris is a Past Master Landmark Lodge #41 in Versailles KY, serving in the East in 2008.