Product Description: "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). .
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 306 EAN: 9780393329018 ISBN: 0393329011 Label: W. W. Norton & Company Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 480 Publication Date: October 17, 2006 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
Customer Reviews
Depends on your level of interest.
If you're hoping for a gripping tale of dark deeds and gaslight frolics, you might be disappointed. This is a serious-minded, scholarly work that lay-readers might see as hopelessly encumbered with statistics and repetitive exhibitions of factual evidence. There are overarching concepts, but there's no spellbinding narrative--this is not a story, it's a study. A such, it reads, at times, like an encyclopedia.
I'm a professor and scholar myself (author of a few equally tedious tomes), ... Read More