At Day's Close: Night in Times Past

by A. Roger Ekirch

Overview

"Remarkable.… Ekirch has emptied night's pockets, and laid the contents out before us." —Arthur Krystal, The New Yorker

Bringing light to the shadows of history through a "rich weave of citation and archival evidence" (Publishers Weekly), scholar A. Roger Ekirch illuminates the aspects of life most often overlooked by other historians—those that unfold at night. In this "triumph of social history" (Mail on Sunday), Ekirch's "enthralling anthropology" (Harper's) exposes the nightlife that spawned a distinct culture and a refuge from daily life.

Fear of crime, of fire, and of the supernatural; the importance of moonlight; the increased incidence of sickness and death at night; evening gatherings to spin wool and stories; masqued balls; inns, taverns, and brothels; the strategies of thieves, assassins, and conspirators; the protective uses of incantations, meditations, and prayers; the nature of our predecessors' sleep and dreams—Ekirch reveals all these and more in his "monumental study" (The Nation) of sociocultural history, "maintaining throughout an infectious sense of wonder" (Booklist).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393329018
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/17/2006
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

A. Roger Ekirch is a professor of history at Virginia Tech and the award-winning author of At Day’s Close, Birthright, and American Sanctuary. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

"Absorbing…fascinating…[Ekirch] has plundered an extraordinary range of cross-cultural sources for his material, and he tells us about everything from witches to firefighting, architecture to domestic violence…[A] monumental study."

The Nation - Terry Eagleton Terry Eagleton

"An enthralling anthropology of the shadow realms."

Harper's - John Leonard

"This is an irresistibly fascinating book. It has a hypnotic, feverish pace that will have its readers up all night wondering, expectant."

Ken Burns

"Perfect reading for insomniacs and star-gazers alike."

Jonathan Spence

"An absorbing social history…A wonderful revelation of a vanished age of darkness."

The Spectator - Raymond Carr

"Absorbing…fascinating…[Ekirch] has plundered an extraordinary range of cross-cultural sources for his material, and he tells us about everything from witches to firefighting, architecture to domestic violence…[A] monumental study."

The Nation - Terry Eagleton

It's been thus for so many generations that we take it for granted: Night is when we go out, when we entertain, when we read, when -- of course -- we sleep. Yet in the long span of human history this is a relatively recent development. Not until "the period from 1730 to 1830," Ekirch argues in this interesting, original book, did the Western world undergo "such a sustained assault upon the nocturnal realm," and not until the 20th century and its near-universal use of artificial light did nighttime become what we know now. So At Day's Close is uncommonly welcome, for it covers ground that just about all others have ignored.
— The Washington Post

Jonathan Yardley

Before the Industrial Revolution, the daily departure of the sun had effects on people far different from those we experience in our own brightly illuminated age. Why? A first-time author explains. Here, Ekirch (History/Virginia Tech) argues-and persuasively demonstrates-that darkness in earlier eras fostered "a distinct culture with many of its own customs and rituals." And he should know. He's researched his subject thoroughly (the endnotes run to 109 pages), trying with moderate success to cram into categories all he's discovered. Unquestionably, Ekirch gives us a vast number of arresting details: Earlier generations, for example, believed that noxious vapors came with night; they didn't admire sunsets; hanging the hearts of pigs over the hearth kept demons out of the chimney; humans have better night vision than most other animals; Pepys' wife (worried about his carnal dreams) would periodically inspect his penis during his sleep; and some early thinkers believed sleep was caused by fumes rising to the brain from the belly of the sleeper. But there are also a number of observations that seem too patent for the attention Ekirch gives them. He tells us that dark was more dangerous than light, that the night facilitated storytelling, that people drank a lot, that lovers and criminals used the cover of darkness, that some people had bad dreams, that bundling was fun, that chamber pots could smell bad. Nonetheless, he's done a creditable job of cataloguing the activities of the night-from nightwatching (a profession, he quips, probably older than prostitution) to enjoying masquerades to dung-burning to praying. He shows, too, that informal youth gangs sometimes ruled the dark streets in AClockwork Orange fashion, and he reveals that sleeping the entire night through was a rarity in an earlier age. Too many potential dangers (fire!), suspicious sounds, foul odors, strange bedfellows and inconsistent diets routinely ruined rest. A fascinating tale but, unfortunately, often in need of more graceful telling. (60 b&w illustrations, 8 pp. color illustrations, not seen)

Kirkus Reviews