Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Secret societies not only exist, they have played an important role in national and international events right up to this day..." (more)
Key Phrases: conspiracy writers, modern secret societies, conspiracy researchers, United States, Knights Templar, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this unconvincing potboiler, Marrs, who charged that conspiracies were behind the JFK assassination (Crossfire) and government cover-ups of the UFO phenomenon (Alien Agenda), now offers a sweeping view of world history through the warped prism of conspiracy theory. The world's richest and most powerful individuals, he opines, wield excessive influence over governments and news media through their control of multinational corporations and organizations he refers to as "secret societies," such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the international Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group (which holds annual closed-door conferences around the globe). The aim of these "secret societies," suggests Marrs, is one-world government and centralized social control, and in this respect, he adds, all these groups and their offshoots carry the imprint of older secret brotherhoods, including Freemasonry and the Illuminati. Conspiracy buffs will have a field day wading through this morass, but other readers will remain unpersuaded by a tract that proceeds by way of innuendo, quotation of other conspiracy researchers' extremist opinions and unsubstantiated statement. Marrs squeezes into his procrustean framework the origins of WWI and WWII, Nazis' occult dabblings, the Russian Revolution, the Morgan and Rothschild banking dynasties and the Knights Templar, and he uncritically entertains a host of maverick theories. His conspiracy trail winds up back in Mesopotamia, as he plies territory mined by Zecharia Sitchin, who believes that extraterrestrials founded the earth's earliest civilizations. Ultimately, this mishmash lacks the semblance of plausibility that helped make Alien Agenda a bestseller. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

In this astonishing book, celebrated reporter and New York Times -; bestselling author Jim Marrs painstakingly explores the world's most closely guarded secrets, exposing clandestine cabals and the power they have wielded throughout time.  Defiantly rooting out the truth, he unearths starting evidence that the real movers and shakers covertly collude to start and stop wars, manipulate stock markets and interest rates, maintain class distinctions, and even censor the six o'clock news.  And they do all this under the mindful auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, the CIA, and even the Vatican.

Drawing on historical evidence and his own impeccable research, Mars carefully traces the mysteries that connect these modern-day conspiracies to humankind's prehistory.  The eye-opening result is an extraordinary synthesis of historical information -; much of it long hidden from the public -; that sheds light on the people and organizations that rule our lives.

Disturbing, provocative, and utterly compelling, Rule by Secrecy offers a singular worldview that may explain who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1 edition (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060931841
• ISBN-13: 978-0060931841
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,757 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bankers, Politicians, Spies, Patsies, and Secret Societies, October 29, 2006

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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This book is extraordinarily interesting, broad, and paradigm-altering.

The table of contents provided enough detail to be an executive summary. The book is somewhat deficient on sources (heavily reliant on superficial "encyclopedic" references) but the alternative explanation of history and reality is not to be missed.

I bought the book thinking it was about government secrecy. Not so. Much more importantly, this book is about the secret societies used by the 300-500 wealthiest individuals in the world, the ones that own the central banks that can cause financial panics, move inflation or deflation, all to the end of profiting, while "exploding the client," the individual "patsy" whose hard-earned wages are nothing more than a supermarket shelf from which these elites pluck extra funds to buy another castle. See my review of Mark Lewis's "Liar's Poker" to understand Wall Street use of individuals as *disposable* sources of cash, and my review of John Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" to get a sense of the larger global methods being used to loot the commonwealths. Also relevant is Jeff Faux, "The Global Class War : How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win it Back" and many of my other reviews of books by others on the loss of government legitimacy and credibility with the people, combined with the predatory immorality of corporations that now own government.

Much of what the author attributes to a grand master plan can also be explained by the natural tendency of wealth to create wealth (compound interest) and for wealth to influence politics, but this book is deeper than that.

The author begins with an introduction of the Rothchilds, and gradually builds up a detailed picture of how they funded "barons" around the world, and in America, where the Morgans and the Rockefellers were their chosen instruments. The Bush family is second tier but right up there. Special attention is given to the Federal Reserve, which is NOT controlled by the government and has NEVER been audited in its history, and to the ease with which bankers make money from advance knowledge of changes in domestic and foreign policies that they often simply mandate.

The USA was until around 1837 a "value-based" economy in which real assets--gold, silver, land, labor--paid in full. There was no debt, no interest. From Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson, bankers from Europe were rejected and considered "more dangerous than armies, swindling the future." Jefferson also believed central banks to be unconstitutional, since the right to create a national currency is reserved to the U.S. Treasury. The author notes that both Lincoln and Kennedy were unique for issuing debt-free currency, and for being assassinated. Reagan was shot by Hinkley, whose relative was dining with a prominent member of the Bush family the night before, and he suggests this was intended to move Bush, a member of the secret society world and leading pawn, into power years sooner.

An extensive discussion is provided of bankers themselves causing financial panics, wars, and other confrontations. The author refers to the Rothschild Formula as being to spawn wars and finance both sides. The book discusses the bank-rolling of Hitler, Trotsky, the US Civil War, the French Revolution, the Boar War, and on and on.

Credible evidence is provided that the terrorism in Italy, as part of a "Strategy of Tension" described in a captured document, was intended to create enough of a perception of leftist terrorism to justify a shift in the government toward fascism. The P2 Lodge behind the terrorism was a secret society on the right, not the left, and is said to have been guided by the Alpine Lodge in Switzerland, the "Gnomes of Zurich." George Bush senior is alleged to have been an honorary member of this lodge, while Henry Kissinger is said later in the book to be a member of the Alpine Lodge. Most interesting for me is the CIA connection. The "Strategy of Tension" was first devised by James Angleton to prevent a communist take-over in Italy following WWII, and is STRICKINGLY apt in considering the allegations that 9/11 was allowed to happen if not made to happen. See my review of "Crossing the Rubicon," of "9/11: Synthetic Terror Made in the USA," among other books (use my lists).

Summing up this book early on, I found it to be 1/3 wealth begets wealth; 1/3 corruption begets wealth, and 1/3 conspiracy begets wealth. However, once I entered the secret society segment of the book, I reverse the above order.

This book gave me a completely new perspective on Cheney and Rove as front men rather than the prime movers, intended to take the heat and be "sacrificed" without the public every realizing that it is Citi-Bank (the same bank said to have secretly received Yamashita's Gold from Douglas McArthur, as told in "Gold Warriors" by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave), and Chase Manhattan, the two owned sufficiently by the Morgan and Rockefeller families to be the hubs for their power. The author also discusses the 40,000 tax exempt organizations that serve as fronts for banks and foundations and corporations, all manipulating the individual citizen-voter without paying a cent in taxes.

On page 408 the author says "Whatever the truth may be, we must be wary of leaders who attempt--whether by force, manipulation, or deceit--to move whole populations in directions they may not wish to go and might not be beneficial to all."

On page 409 the author says "Knowledge is indeed power. It is time for those who desire true freedom to exert themselves--to fight back against the forces who desire domination through fear and disunity [enabled by secrecy." The author notes that there are more of us than of them (see my review of Jonathan Schell's "Unconquerable World.")

I have one word for what I plan to work toward: TRANSPARENCY. Collective public intelligence is going to survive and prosper. The times, they are a'changing.

375 of 404 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Paradigm Shocker, May 25, 2000

By	Stephen Rice "STR" (Bartlesville, Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rule By Secrecy: The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commision, the Freemasons and the Great Pyramids (Hardcover)

It may be true that there are other books out there by William Bramley, David Icke, and others that cover some of the same material that Mr. Marrs covers in this book but that isn't the whole story. Anyone that writes that you should save your money on this one has to make you think. I mean, I bought this book just because of the negative reviews I read to see if I would agree. After finishing the entire book I have to say this is a must read for the entire population of America. It seems to me that anyone saying it is just another boogie man story is either in denial or is following an agenda to keep this secret. It is a book of the facts that are out there for anyone to see. On some issues I simply couldn't believe the information I read so I searched out and found the book "Secrets of the Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins at my local library to confirm this authors claims. Several more times I found information I simply could not bring myself to believe and each time I found that Mr. Marrs is correct. There is no gray area here. Its black and white. Yes, Mr. Marrs quotes some of the more controversial authors, and yes, he shares his own views at times, but for the most part the entire book is a book of objective information interpretted just the way I would interpret it myself had I been the one who researched it. If you are the type that just can't let go of your own little paradigm of the Universe don't buy this book. It will shake you up. I have read books like this before but this is the best of the best to come out on this topic that I've seen. If you really think that our Presidents are elected and you think you have a pretty good bead on things you will be rudely awakened to the fact that they are selected, not elected after reading all of this information. You will realize as I did that the Mass Media is joined at the hip with the secret societies and Governments of the world. We've been deceived and the truth is starting to break the damn of secrecy down. Let us all hope that by the time the damn breaks it isn't too late. There is a boogie man alright, several families of them in fact, and they laugh at the citizens of the United States and the world all the way to the bank everyday. Read this book before it gets banned. It will rock your world.

158 of 177 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See Reality In A New Light..., November 18, 2000

By	Adaria (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rule By Secrecy: The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commision, the Freemasons and the Great Pyramids (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. I have studied a number of works on this subject matter and found this one to be the most well-organized, comprehensive and understandable.

My daughter is a political science major and she is reading "Rule By Secrecy" also -- she told me, "If there really is a power behind the government running our world, I want to know about it!" Mr. Marrs book should be required reading in our schools. If anything, it will cause one to think and question which is vital to our personal sovereignty. And by the way, other books that support/corroborate the informaton in this book are "Trance-Formation of America" by Cathy O'Brien/Mark Phillips and "The Biggest Secret" by David Icke (though both may challenge your comfort zone even more than this one.)

"Rule By Secrecy" is written in such a way that it is easily digestable and a great read for anyone who questions reality even a little bit. Skeptics find this work and others like it confrontive and threatening because they demand "proof". Well, that is an illusion because the "powers that be" manufacture proof on a daily basis through the media. Please consider that if you are addicted to a steady diet of newspapers and/or watching the news daily, you are perhaps being influenced by only a few (of many) very powerful forms of mind control. When you begin to wake up and question the way things are your heart will provide you real proof. The ability to think and discern using your intuition and feeling nature is the only true freedom there is.

I applaud Mr. Marrs for his courage. Reading this book will cause you to view our world in a new light -- buy it and educate yourself if you dare.