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June 26, 2005
The History Of Nighttime
In the Houston Chronicle this morning I found a review of a new book that looks intriguing: AT DAY'S CLOSE: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch. Reviewer Fritz Lanham writes that Ekirch
argues that before the Industrial Revolution nighttime wasn't merely a tenebrous version of day. Nighttime was an "alternate reign," in the words of one English poet, a different reality to a far greater extent than is true today. Social encounters, attitudes toward authority and law, dress, travel, work rhythms — all these changed dramatically when the sun went down on our candle-lit ancestors.
One of Ekirch's most intriguing observations is that murder rates in the 16th century were dramatically higher than those today--effective urban police forces did not exist until the 19th century. Combined with the unavoidable darkness, it's easy to see why most people barricaded themselves in at sundown.
This is the kind of history that is extremely valuable: it sets off in sharp relief the fundamental differences between our world and the world of our ancestors, differences that we all take for granted, if indeed we are even aware of them.
It also illustrates the continual danger of judging past actions by current standards. Shakespeare's Hamlet, Newton's laws of gravity, and the Declaration of Independence all are timeless and universal works; they are as valid today as they were when created or discovered. But the daily context of Shakespeare's, Newton's, and Jefferson's lives were unimaginably different than ours, and we make a mistake when we treat these historical figures as if they live next door.
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