{"product_id":"9781541601161","title":"A Place for Everything","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling historian, the “truly revelatory” (\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e) story of how the alphabet ordered our world\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Place for Everything\u003c\/i\u003e is the first-ever history of alphabetization, from the Library of Alexandria to Wikipedia. Once we’ve learned our ABCs as children, few of us ever think of them again, but alphabetical order plays a material role in our adult lives. From school registers to electoral rolls, from dictionaries and encyclopedias to library shelves, the alphabet has ordered our lives, often invisibly. Yet the birth of alphabetization was a constant struggle: Medieval clergy felt that its use would upend the divine order of creation; elite institutions like Harvard and Yale long ranked students by the social status of their parents, rather than ordering them from A to Z. But eventually alphabetical order triumphed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith wry humor, historian Judith Flanders offers a fascinating history of how the alphabet ordered our world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Judith Flanders","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback \/ Basic Books \/ 5\/3\/2022","offer_id":42673833345279,"sku":"9781541601161","price":22.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/products\/BNCImageAPI_d097a889-da7c-44c7-b543-e33b4fe0c8c4.jpg?v=1651484372","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9781541601161","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}