Start with high-confidence history of religion books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
Religion in Nineteenth Century America
Grant Wacker
American Lazarus
Joanna Brooks
A History of God
Karen Armstrong
Foxfire 7
Paul Gillespie
Comparative Religion for Dummies
William P. Lazarus, Mark Sullivan
Inside Scientology
Janet Reitman
World Religions
John Bowker
The Prince of Darkness
Jeffrey Burton Russell
A New History of Shinto
John Breen, Mark Teeuwen
The Cheese and the Worms
Carlo Ginzburg
The Spiritual Virtuoso
Marion Goldman, Steven Pfaff
Santa Claus Worldwide
Tom A. Jerman
