The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light

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Overview


A deeply panoramic tour of the night, from its brightest spots to the darkest skies we have left.

A starry night is one of nature's most magical wonders. Yet in our artificially lit world, three-quarters of Americans' eyes never switch to night vision and most of us no longer experience true darkness. In THE END OF NIGHT, Paul Bogard restores our awareness of the spectacularly primal, wildly dark night sky and how it has influenced the human ...

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The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light

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More About This Book

Overview


A deeply panoramic tour of the night, from its brightest spots to the darkest skies we have left.

A starry night is one of nature's most magical wonders. Yet in our artificially lit world, three-quarters of Americans' eyes never switch to night vision and most of us no longer experience true darkness. In THE END OF NIGHT, Paul Bogard restores our awareness of the spectacularly primal, wildly dark night sky and how it has influenced the human experience across everything from science to art.

From Las Vegas' Luxor Beam--the brightest single spot on this planet--to nights so starlit the sky looks like snow, Bogard blends personal narrative, natural history, science, and history to shed light on the importance of darkness--what we've lost, what we still have, and what we might regain--and the simple ways we can reduce the brightness of our nights tonight.

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  • The End of Night
    The End of Night  

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

The world is losing its darkness. Most of us believe that such illumination is a gift, but according to nature advocate Paul Bogard (Let There Be Night), it is at best a very mixed blessing. Channeling scientific studies and interviews through a poetic sensibility, this professor of creative nonfiction describes how darkness shapes our lives in dramatic ways and explains how its loss can have detrimental effects on not just us, but on the entire natural realm. Illuminating the night in telling ways. Editor's recommendation.

Publishers Weekly
Bogard (editor, Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark) spent his childhood summers in a lakeside cabin in Minnesota, where he savored the night in all its inky blackness and took away with him a lifelong appreciation for the darkest hours. In this moving, poetic study, the professor of creative nonfiction at James Madison University examines from numerous angles the night and how we experience it, traveling to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Walden Pond, and the Canary Islands to soak up varying degrees of darkness. After talking to astronomers, lighting professionals, nurses, and other night-shift workers, Bogard goes on to explore the implications of a night that’s getting brighter every minute, thanks in large part to parking lot lights and streetlights. Discussions on lighting’s role in safety (some research suggests a direct correlation between higher crime rates and increased street lighting), as well as public health (he notes that studies indicate a possible relationship between light at night and cancer rates), add to the story, making this an immersive, multifaceted, and thought-provoking study. Even readers unable to tell Orion from the Big Dipper will find a new appreciation for the night sky after spending some time with this terrific book. 13 b&w photos. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary Agency (July 9)
From the Publisher
"A moving, poetic, immersive, multifaceted, and thought-provoking study... Terrific." -- Publishers Weekly

"[Bogard] offers delightful insights from experts on the activities of nature during the night.... Bogard will leave readers in awe of darkness and in admiration of his book." -- Library Journal (starred review)

"Appealing.... An engaging blend of personal story, hard science and a bit of history." -- Kirkus Reviews

"An enthralling reminder of the power and pleasures of the dark." -- The Bookseller

"Introducing us to the pitch-black island of Sark, and groups such as Civil Twilight (designer of streetlights that shut off under moonlight) and Starlight Reserves (which considers freedom from light pollution a basic right), Bogard makes a solid case for hitting the national dimmer switch." -- Mother Jones

"A hymn to vanished darkness. A literary journey. This is a rich book. As you read it, you too will want to reclaim the night and perhaps rediscover the heavens of the Enlightenment." -- Nature

"The most precious things in the modern world are probably silence, solitude, and darkness--and of these three rarities, true darkness may be the rarest of all. Many thanks to Paul Bogard for searching out the dark spots and reminding us to celebrate them!"--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"Darkness is among the many things we have lost gradually, without mourning. Paul Bogard offers a brilliantly illuminating history and a badly needed reminder that we have been blind to the death of night."--Bill Streever, author of Cold

"This is an important and beautifully narrated journey into our endangered inheritance: the sleep-silvery dark of night."--David George Haskell, Professor of Biology at The University of the South, author of The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch In Nature

"Many of the words one might use to praise this book-lucid, illuminating, brilliant-are, ironically, metaphors drawn from light. Paul Bogard deploys his brilliance to seek out and celebrate the primordial darkness that surrounds our lit-up bubble. He shows how much we lose by living cooped up inside this perpetual glare, cut off from the beauty and mystery of the cosmos, lulled into thinking we are masters of the universe rather than members of the web of life. And he shows how we might reconnect to that original world."--Scott Russell Sanders, author of Earth Works and A Conservationist Manifesto

Library Journal
Bogard (creative nonfiction, James Madison Univ.; editor, Let There Be Night) gives us a world tour of the night, both its darkness and our lighting of our way through it. He takes us from perhaps the darkest place in the United States, in the Nevada desert, to one of the brightest, not far away in Las Vegas; to a Cape Cod, MA, beach for stargazing and the natural sounds of night; and to a bridge in Austin, TX, that hosts a huge colony of bats. He offers delightful insights from experts on the activities of nature during the night—the "ecology of darkness"— e.g., with foxes hunting and nocturnal migrations of geese. Readers will not be immune to Bogard's wonder and appreciation, which are evident in every paragraph. He further engages us with stories of different kinds of lighting, their uses (e.g., the lighting of Paris), our artistic interpretations of light, and the effects upon us (some dire) of artificial lighting. He shows how the loss of natural darkness has harmed Earth's ecology as the worlds of darkness slip away. Today, many human populations have never experienced night vision or the complete darkness. VERDICT Bogard will leave readers in awe of darkness and in admiration of his book. For discerning naturalists.—Margaret F. Dominy, Drexel Univ. Lib., Philadelphia
Kirkus Reviews
An ardent opponent of light pollution chronicles how the darkness of night is disappearing around much of the world, why that matters, and what can and should be done about it. Bogard (Creative Nonfiction/James Madison Univ.) travels around the world to its brightest and darkest places, looking up at the night sky. This book can be seen as a companion piece to the anthology Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark (2008), in which the author gathered 29 individual voices on the subject; here, the voice is his own but with generous quotes from scientists and activists whom he has sought out in his travels. Among the places he visited are not only the cities of Las Vegas, Paris, Florence and New York, but also Walden Pond, small towns and remote places such as Death Valley, Chaco Canyon, the Canary Islands and the Isle of Sark. Bogard fondly and movingly remembers times when night was really dark, but he fears that such experiences will be unknown to most of humanity. The loss, as he explains, is not merely an aesthetic or even a spiritual one; artificial lighting may be having serious impacts on our health and on the environment. The author talked to researchers who see a link between lighting and cancer and to naturalists who note the impact of artificial outdoor lighting on other species, such as birds, bats and bees. The efforts of the National Park Service to set up dark-sky preserves gives Bogard reason for optimism, and his conversations with outdoor lighting experts indicate that feasible energy-reducing approaches are available. What's needed is awareness, which the author provides in an appealing, reader-friendly way. An engaging blend of personal story, hard science and a bit of history.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780316182904
  • Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
  • Publication date: 7/9/2013
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 42137
  • Product dimensions: 6.62 (w) x 9.34 (h) x 1.12 (d)

Meet the Author

Paul Bogard teaches creative nonfiction at James Madison University. He is the editor of the anthology Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark.
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Customer Reviews

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    As soon as I found out about this book I pre-ordered it. It has

    As soon as I found out about this book I pre-ordered it. It has not disappointed! Immediately you can see the care and time that went into writing and organizing this book. The chapters are organized like the Bortle Scale to mimic that journey from the brightest places to the darkest. And when I found that out, it was a discovery that added even more to an already fantastic book.

    Each chapter holds unique experiences and interviews with people I never would have heard from otherwise. And each of them plays such an important part in this issue. The interviews share such insight into the problem of light pollution, but at the same time stresses the ease with which the problem could be solved. What's even more astounding is the way Bogard is able to make a connection with the night sky which in turn passes over to the reader, giving you an urge to drive out to the middle of nowhere to see those sights while at the same moment inspiring you to do something about the fact that you DO have to drive out so far.

    This book is not only informative and educational it is also inspirational and engaging to the point that you cannot stay seated after you read it. You have to do something about it!

    This is a book that will live on my nightstand. And most definitely a book that I will recommend every time I discuss books with others.
    A big THANK YOU! to Paul Bogard for writing this and sending it out into the world to be a wake-up call for the importance of dark and an inspiration to make some much-needed changes.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I heard Paul Bogard read passages from this book in Vegas. I, l

    I heard Paul Bogard read passages from this book in Vegas. I, like most people who attended this special presentation, purchased the book. I am chapters into this book and am inspired. Paul writes beautifully about a topic that is important, about an issue that can be addressed with reasonable easily executed actions. I would highly recommend this book, and highly recommend that we all look up at the stars -- soon - before the twinkle and sparkle fades.

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