Publisher's Synopsis
From the Private First Class who knows his place, to the classification of the natural world, we introduce hierarchies, pecking orders and ranks to every aspect of our lives, from society and religion to leisure and the law, establishing priorities and bringing order to our world. This miscellany of the various hierarchies that govern our existence ranges from the prosaically earthbound, in the form of roads and freeways, to the esoterically celestial, in the form of angels, seraphim, cherubims, archangels and so on. Who is more senior in a Chinese triad, a white paper fan or a red pole? What trumps a straight flush in poker? How many ranks are there between a detective and a colonel in the American police?
