| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

A. Roger Ekirch. At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. New York: W. W. Norton. 2005. Pp. xxxii, 447. $25.95.
The night is an illusive subject, understudied and ill-appreciated. A. Roger Ekirch refers to night as terra incognita, ignored by all but the most "enterprising scholars in Europe." He aims to rectify this neglect by exploring "the primeval passage from daylight to darkness" in Western society "before the advent of the Industrial Revolution," his canvas being Europe and early America in the period 1500–1750. He aspires to a broad social and cultural history, one that presumably addresses "night in its totality" (pp. xxv, 347).	1
This is a tall order, reaching as it does across geographies and a chronology of two and a half centuries. Ekirch approaches the night thematically, ordering his text in four sections. Part one outlines the dangers of night, and how it was lived as a time of fear, fueled by apocalyptic visions, perceptions of evil spirits, and varied Satanic apprehensions, as well as plagued by plunder, fire, theft, and violence. Following logically on the heels of this opening section is part two, an account of authority's inability to rule decisively in darkness. This led to retreats into domestic fortifications and human efforts to make darkness visible, or at least negotiable. In part three, Ekirch shifts gears somewhat, outlining the endeavors of the night, from specific labors and crafts to sociability and sex: princes and peers opted for different evening activities than peasants and urban plebeians. Part four closes, appropriately and most innovatively, with three chapters on sleep.	. . .

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