L’histoire globale et la question maçonnique: éléments pour une analyse

Abstract

Specialized Scientific historiography in Freemasonry is a recent development, starting in France in the 1950 and 1960’s, in Spain in the 80’s and in Latin America since 2000.This young scientific community currently needs a critical historiographical review. This movement is necessarily collective one and is essential in providing useful guidance for future researchers. This paper is part of this process. Since Freemasonry is the founding prototype of the international public opinion (or international public spaces), masonic networks rely on a global history, referring not only to the analysis of contemporary international relations but also to public opinion and civil society studies. How does general history academia –and, especially, “world history”- deal with the masonic question? What are their favorite perspectives and historical periods? The paper is the first in a series aimed at evaluating the position Freemasonry holds in general history, it focuses on some representative "world history” works: the History of Public Opinion by Jürgen Habermas, the English speaking World History, Eric J. Hobsbawm three volumes of the 19 th and 20 th Centuries and the General History of the Nineteenth Century by Robert Schnerb.