Description

The first complete history of the world’s most notorious secret society – and its bizarre and dangerous afterlife that we’re still reckoning with today.

‘A dazzling jewel of a book’ SATHNAM SANGHERA

‘The fascinating true story of the conspiracy theory that changed everything’ DORIAN LYNSKEY

On 1 May 1776 a radical young professor named Adam Weishaupt founded a secret society with the aim of infiltrating and overturning the system of world power. Many influential figures joined, united by scandalously liberal ideals, elaborate ciphers, and melodramatic rituals. They called themselves the Order of the Illuminati.

Within a decade, they were gone – outed and banned by the authorities, their leaders prosecuted and exiled, their project a dismal failure. Yet millions of people maintain the Illuminati lives on, manipulating world events from 9/11 to the Covid pandemic and the career of Taylor Swift.

Illuminati is the gripping story of the Order’s rise, fall, and enduring legacy: the idea that the Order’s collapse was a sham and its hold on power complete. First a means of explaining the shocking violence of the French Revolution, historian Michael Taylor reveals the ways in which people have reinvented this conspiracy time and again at moments of spectacular change, fear and perceived betrayal – exposing the power of conspiracist thinking as never before.

Praise for Michael Taylor’s previous books:

‘One of the pleasures of teaching modern historians is that they go on to write great books like this’ MARY BEARD

‘As thrilling as it is sweeping, populated by a brilliantly drawn cast of characters’ TOM HOLLAND

‘An astonishing book’ PETER FRANKOPAN

‘Impressively researched and engagingly written’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK

‘Outstanding … gripping … essential reading’ SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

Publisher Review

This is dazzling history that tells us a great deal about society now. A jewel of a book — Sathnam Sanghera The fascinating true story of the conspiracy theory that changed everything — Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth Taylor brilliantly outlines the petty squabbles that beset [the actual] Illuminati . . . Taylor’s meticulous account [then] shows how two historians in the 19th century traced the origins of the French Revolution and its descent into extreme violence to the Illuminati . . . [and] In a repeating pattern [to] every subsequent convulsion in world history . . . Taylor patiently traces details of increasingly bizarre arguments and propositions with good humour and a measure of understanding. To those who wonder whether this strange nonsense really matters, there are plenty of ‘real world’ examples – not of Illuminati influence, but of the consequences of disturbed people believing dangerous nonsense — David Horspool * Oldie *