![]() ![]() Richards said it makes sense that Yale students became less interested in secret societies - traditionally dominated by “WASP-ish” legacy male students - as the University evolved into a far more diverse and meritocratic community. “But are they as important as they used to be? I would argue that they probably are.” “There’s no question about it:, in terms of prestige and significance, fell off the cliff in 1969,” Richards said. Last Thursday, journalist Helen Andrews ’08 released a review of “Skulls and Keys” in the Washington Post that lambasted Richards’ history for obfuscating “the larger fact that Yale’s secret societies have long been in decline.” Andrews’ review concludes that while Harvard University is embroiled in heated debate surrounding its single-gender “final clubs,” Yale’s secret societies have perhaps slipped so far into irrelevance that they are not “important enough to be worth banning.” In an interview with the News, Richards argued that Andrews’ review of his book lacked nuance. In his book, Richards, a member of Skull and Bones, crafts an extensive historical narrative about the place of secret societies such as “Wolf’s Head” or “Berzelius” on Yale’s campus and within the American public imagination. The recent release of an 821-page history book detailing the influential rise of secret societies at Yale - “Skulls and Keys: The Hidden History of Yale’s Secret Societies” by David Richards LAW ’72 - has reignited the divisive debate over the importance of secret societies to Yale students.
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