Customer Reviews

Secret America: The Hidden Symbols, Codes and Mysteries of the United States

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As far as the other review is concerned, it's right on point. So I will not repeat any facts already given about the book being based on mostly fictional references.
This book is a collection of Masonic info. that you will learn a great deal more about from google rather than this book. The authors are seeking profits from the rising interest in secret societies and are very poor researchers and offer NO new information or insights that can't be found on your world wide web. If I could do it over I would have spent the $10 on toilet paper and probably learned a great deal more about our nations "secret" history from it.

-Nate-

I almost never offer reviews on products unless they are either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. This book falls under the latter category. This is the first book I've ever read which uses a work of fiction as its primary reference source. Initiallly the book seemed like it would be an informative read concerning secret symbolism in our nations history. However, this book was basically a history of Freemasonry in the U.S. with a few tidbits of other "mysteries" (most of which are not secret)thrown in for good measure.

My biggest contention with this book is the almost neurotic citing of Dan Brown's book "The Lost Symbol". In fact, the authors referenced this book TWENTY-NINE TIMES in giving details of "secret masonic history" as well as in describing the architecture of "mysterious Washington D.C." And almost all of these references began the same way "In the Lost Symbol, Dan Brown says..."

Get A Clue! "The Lost Symbol" is a work of fiction! You do not write a reference/non-fiction book and use a novel as your primary source of information. But, that's just what these authors did and as the book progressed, the references became more frequent. This was enough for me to decide that the information in this book must be inaccurate at best and, at worst, outright fabrication by the authors.

Another drawback was the redundancy of information. I understand reiterating information or alluding to earlier information in order to clarify new concepts in a later chapter. However, these authors would repeat the SAME information in almost the EXACT SAME WORDING IN THE SAME CHAPTER!! This provided no clarification and served only to provide filler for the book. And speaking of filler, much of the information in Chapter Ten, "Our Secret Capital: Washington, D.C.", reads like a column from a travel magazine. For example the decription of the National Cathedral, which is neither mysterious nor secret, simply described the history and opulence of this historical landmark.

At times I had the impression that these authors were amateur conspiracy buffs and that their interest in such things were piqued as a result of reading "The Lost Symbol". While there is a "bibliography" (Recommended Reading), almost none of these sources were cited with the exception of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" (!) in Chapter 12, "Secret Societies in America Today".

Ultimately, this book seemed to be an attempt to cash in on Dan Brown's latest novel as the numerous references to it would certainly bring up this work (Secret America) in a list of search engine results (smart!). In the final analysis, I believe that "Secret America" is one "symbol" which should be lost and stay lost.

I think Dan Brown would agree.