I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman in Asheville, NC a few weeks ago. He suggested that lluminatist principles principles were American rather than European. This idea is interesting, but I find no evidence to support it. My main argument is that the reading list for the Illuminati seed schools does not include any American pre-revolutionary texts, but only European sources. Further, the Colonial revolutionaries were much more conservative when it came to matters such as religion and property rights.

On a side note, H.G. Wells’ 1933 novel “The Shape of Things to Come” provides an example of what an Illuminatist world would look like. Edward Bellamy’s 1887 novel “Looking Backward: 2000-1887” provides a more moderate example of an Illuminatist society. There is no evidence that either writer was associated with the Bavarian Illuminati or that the Illuminati continued their activities past 1820.

While conspiracy theorists have claimed Wells was a Freemason and an Illuminatus , he was, in fact, neither. Wells did belong to the Fabian Society, a moderate Socialist student association. While Bellamy’s father was a Freemason, there is no evidence that he himself was.