Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power
by Alexandra Robbins

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Book Reviews of Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power

Book Review: "Secret societies are [the] arched eyebrow personified."
Summary: 3 Stars

Skull and Bones is highly selective, tapping only fifteen seniors each year, but the networks members forge among themselves, with faculty who were members, and with powerful alumni endure for a lifetime. Bushes, Buckleys, Bundys, Rockefellers, Tafts, and others have formed and exploited their secret society networks in government and foreign policy, the CIA, finance, and business. Robbins firmly debunks, however, the rumors of an "international mafia," a real estate cabal, neo-Nazi philosophy, and the notion that this is the "most powerful secret society the world has ever known."

Herself a member of a "kindred Yale secret society," Robbins can hardly be expected to represent the point of view of the 90% of the campus which is not tapped for secret societies, which, now admitting women and minorities, seem to be trying to represent the college's demographics more fairly. She never really deals with the inherent elitism (or tokenism) which the selection process represents, however, and I disagree with her contention that secret societies are necessary in our lives: "The secret society--like the power of the elitist, old-school colleges...--survives because people like to believe that seemingly random events are orchestrated by someone or something in control...they need causality in much the same way as they need a God. People's need for the Skull and Bones conspiracies to elucidate an underlying order is similar to the need for religion to explain death and purpose." As long as people believe this, secret societies will endure. Mary Whipple

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