Reviewed by Carla Gerona | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 64.1

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Reviewed by Carla Gerona | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 64.1 | The History Cooperative

Reviews of Books

Carla Gerona, University of Texas, Dallas

At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. By A. Roger Ekirch. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. 479 pages. $25.95 (cloth) $16.95 (paper).
This is the first book that fully explores "the forgotten half of the human experience" (xxv), night, during the early modern period. In At Day's Close, A. Roger Ekirch sneaks into the dark spaces of night alleys and closed bedrooms to uncover a hidden nocturnal world "before the advent of the Industrial Revolution" (xxv). Nighttime, Ekirch writes, was more than "a backdrop to daily existence, or a natural hiatus"; instead, it "embodied a distinct culture, with many of its own customs and rituals" (xxv). A sweeping exploration that vividly patches together a wide variety of sources from Europe to America, At Day's Close unfolds a stunningly sharp owl's-eye view of night. As documentary filmmaker Ken Burns put it on the jacket, Ekirch's fascinating book has a "hypnotic, feverish pace that will have its readers up all night wondering, expectant." Indeed Ekirch's rich book shares some of the qualities of Burns's epic documentaries.	1
The first two parts of At Day's Close examine the perils of night and official and popular responses to these dangers. Candles and lanterns supplied little light, and people living in small face-to-face communities feared the darkness that "brutally robbed men and women of their vision, the most treasured of human senses" (8). Perceived and actual risks ranged from spirits such as vampires and witches to human robbers and murderers. Other nightly hazards included fires, unmarked wells, unpaved roads, and excrement thrown from windows. Some believed that even the moon "impregnated the night air with pestilential damps" (12), and one London parish attributed twenty-two deaths to planetary influence. To respond to these hazards, most people would simply shut in when the ringing of bells, sounding of drums, blowing of horns, and closing of walls announced night's coming. Authorities sought to limit nighttime activity by enacting curfews, restricting weapons, and legislating dress codes. Individuals also sought to take control of the dark hours, using dogs, locks, and weapons to guard their homes. Occult and Christian beliefs along with symbolic amulets and crosses offered further protection.	2
Despite these fears and dangers, some found opportunities at night. People who worked at night included servants, bakers, women (in sewing bees, homes, and streets), latrine cleaners, and gravediggers (and grave robbers), among others. Entertainment consisted of alehouses, brothels, and masked balls. For the wealthy these masquerades afforded an escape from social rules and expectations; for the less wealthy they were an opportunity to enjoy an egalitarian environment. Ekirch writes that "night revolutionized the social landscape," making "the mighty more plebian" and "the weak more powerful" (227). Yet he also recognizes that at the end of the night everyone returned to their original stations. Religious and political minorities, the diseased and disabled, and homosexuals also came out at night, but primarily because others did not welcome their activities during the day.	3
To fully consider his subject, Ekirch uses sources from many different places, including colonial American homes, plantations, and slave quarters. A typical paragraph about the increasing use of night watchmen begins with evidence from Tuscany, France, and Switzerland in the 1300s, moves to York and London, England, in the 1500s, and ends in Boston, Charleston, and New York in the 1600s. Throughout Ekirch cites Roman and Greek sources, observing that "uniformities in nocturnal life, across time and space, often outweighed variations ... people were more alike in their attitudes and conventions than they were different" (xxvii). Still one wonders if a closer look at some of these places may have revealed more disparities. Did the people of Spain take siestas and stay up later? Ekirch draws on material from Barcelona to Seville but not Latin America. In one telling moment, Ekirch suggests that Americans, more than Europeans, used guns to protect their homes at night. In the end Ekirch's broad approach may leave Atlanticists and microhistorians questing for more.	. . .

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