Evening's Empire

Craig Koslofsky is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His previous publications include The Reformation of the Dead: Death and Ritual in Early Modern Germany (2001).

• 1. An early modern revolution; 2. Darkness and the devil, 1450–1650; 3. Seeking the Lord in the night, 1530–1650; 4. Princes of darkness: the night at court, 1600–1750; 5. 'An entirely new contrivance': the rise of street lighting, 1660–1700; 6. Colonising the urban night: resistance, gender and the public sphere; 7. Colonising the rural night?; 8. Darkness and enlightenment; 9. Conclusion.

'Koslofsky's epic history of the night reveals a revolution: how stage lights remade theater, how Lutheran mystics penetrated the night, how witch hunters fought the devil on his own nocturnal turf, how racism mirrored the presumed iniquity of blackness, and how street lights pacified cities. Readers will find surprises on every page.' Edward Muir, Northwestern University