Volume 1
Mesopotamia
c.3500–539 BCE · 134 pp
The machinethe scribal school and the collated tablet
The shelf
Find your next tradition.
Thirty-one complete histories. Browse by period or follow a tradition across the centuries. Start wherever your curiosity takes you.
Volume 2
Ancient Egypt
c.3100 BCE–394 CE · 130 pp
The machinethe fill-in-the-blank funerary scroll
Volume 3
The Vedic World
c.1500–500 BCE · 126 pp
The machinerecitation with checksums — the pāṭha system
Volume 4
Greece and Rome
c.1400 BCE–394 CE · 132 pp
The machinea state-owned oracle behind a locked door
Volume 5
Judaism
1208 BCE onward · 132 pp
The machinescribes who count letters and log their own errors
Volume 6
Mesoamerica and the Andes
c.1200 BCE–present · 132 pp
The machinethe screenfold codex, and the khipu
Volume 7
Zoroastrianism
c.1200 BCE onward · 132 pp
The machinean alphabet invented to freeze a dead language
Volume 8
Jainism
c.700 BCE onward · 132 pp
The machinethe temple manuscript library
Volume 9
Confucianism
551 BCE–1905 CE · 130 pp
The machinethe canon carved in stone, then the exam
Volume 10
Buddhism
c.480 BCE onward · 126 pp
The machinereciter guilds, and group chant as error-correction
Volume 11
Daoism
4th c. BCE–present · 130 pp
The machinethe parish register
Volume 12
Classical Hinduism
c.400 BCE–1500 CE · 130 pp
The machinethe deed engraved in copper
Volume 13
Pagan Europe
c.500 BCE–1400 CE · 128 pp
The machinenone of its own — recorded by its conquerors
Volume 14
Early Christianity
30–312 CE · 130 pp
The machinethe codex
Volume 15
Mahayana Buddhism
c.100 BCE onward · 124 pp
The machinemerit as a print run
Volume 16
Imperial Christianity
312–1453 · 130 pp
The machinethe imperial post
Volume 17
Islam
610–661 · 134 pp
The machinethe standardised codex, and the memoriser
Volume 18
Sunni and Shia
661 CE–present · 126 pp
The machinethe isnad — verification by named human chain
Volume 19
Shinto
692 CE–present · 126 pp
The machinetransmission by demolition
Volume 20
Zen
c.700–750 onward · 128 pp
The machinethe lineage certificate
Volume 21
Tibetan Buddhism
c.779 onward · 128 pp
The machinea printing house that never stopped
Volume 22
Sufism
8th c.–present · 130 pp
The machinethe order as a franchise
Volume 23
Ifá and the Yoruba World
c.1000–1400 onward · 126 pp
The machinea binary-indexed oral database
Volume 24
Sikhism
1469–present · 122 pp
The machinea book that holds office
Volume 25
The Reformation
1517–1648 · 134 pp
The machinethe pamphlet
Volume 26
The African Diaspora Religions
c.1500–present · 126 pp
The machinethe mass-produced saint
Volume 27
Modern Hinduism
1828 onward · 124 pp
The machinethe reform society and the printing press
Volume 28
The Nineteenth-Century New Religions
1830–1889 · 128 pp
The machinethe print run and the mail
Volume 29
Pentecostalism
1901–present · 128 pp
The machinea free newspaper, then a radio licence
Volume 30
Rastafari
1930 onward · 132 pp
The machinethe record
Volume 31
The Unaffiliated
1951 onward · 126 pp
The machinethe paperback that replaced the coven