Dr. Pamela Popielarz – Order of Business: The Golden Age of Fraternity and its Legacy of Inequality
UIC Sociology Colloquium Series
November 19, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Location
BSB 4105
Address
1007 W Harrison St, Chicago, IL 60607
Cost
No Cost
Calendar
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Fraternal orders flourished so spectacularly between the Civil War and World War I that this era – the peak of the industrial revolution – is sometimes called the Golden Age of Fraternity. I use Golden Age fraternal orders to show how organizations foster systemic racial inequalities. I focus on two of the largest orders: the Freemasons and the Knights of Pythias, which by 1900 together encompassed two million members. By analyzing thousands of pages written by and for these orders – including their constitutions, meeting proceedings, histories, and rituals – I lay bare who they were, what they did, and how they adopted many hard-headed business practices. This talk focuses on fraternal orders’ use of finance capitalism and how, in doing so, they helped to forge a durable business culture in their own image, with practices that tend to favor White men but are widely construed to be neutral and meritocratic.
Date posted
Nov 4, 2025
Date updated
Nov 4, 2025