So accustomed are we to alphabetical order, and so much do we take it for granted, that we assume it is an entirely natural way of ordering things rather than a means of classification that had to be invented. A moment’s reflection, though, ought to be sufficient to persuade us that alphabetical order is not a synthetic a priori judgment, à la Kant. In addition to the fact that people whose system of writing is not alphabetic have nevertheless managed to order things successfully, to judge by their level of civilization, it is obvious that alphabetical order is something that we have to learn to employ rather than know by instinct, though I admit to having no recollection whatever of how or when I learned to employ it.

Such order has since become second nature to me, as it is to everyone else of my acquaintance, which is why, before reading this book, I had never considered its history. Whatever has not always existed has an origin story, however, and it was a clever idea of the social historian Judith Flanders to write that story, in a book entitled A Place for Everything. Without in the least meaning to, she makes us—or me—feel slightly foolish for never having thought about it before.

For anyone who has long taken alphabetical order for granted, it will surely come as a surprise that the history of its development was so tortuous and took so long. One cannot point to