A collection of books about freemasonry  

wikipedia says:

Freemasonry is a fraternal organization with millions of membe. It exists in various forms worldwide, with shared moral and metaphysical ideals and in most of its branches requires a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being.



The fraternity is administratively organized into Grand Lodges (or sometimes Orients) that each govern a particular jurisdiction made up of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. Grand Lodges recognize each other through a process of landmarks and regularity. There are also appendant bodies, which are organizations related to the main branch of Freemasonry, but with their own independent administration.



Freemasonry uses the metapho of operative stonemasons' tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon's Temple, to convey what is most generally defined as "a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."



While Freemasonry has often been called a "secret society," it is more correct to say that it is an esoteric society, in that certain aspects are private.From many quarte, Freemasons have stated that Freemasonry has, in the 21st century, become less a secret society and more of a "society with secrets." The private aspects of modern Freemasonry are the modes of recognition amongst membe and particular elements within the ritual.



There have been many disclosures and exposés dating as far back as the eighteenth century. These often lack the proper context for true undetanding of the content, may be outdated for various reasons, or could be outright hoaxes on the part of the author, as in the case of the Taxil hoax.