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.

In this artful blend of environmental and cultural history, Bogard manages to make a book about light pollution pure reading ­pleasure. As he travels the world looking for dark spaces that best reveal the night
skies, Bogard considers our affinity for artificial light, the false sense of security it provides, and its implications. He studies the skies of Las Vegas and Paris, Walden Pond and Mantua, Italy. He walks
with lighting designers, naturalists, and astronomers while pondering the best way to embrace the night. Authors such as Thoreau and Henry Beston serve as hallmarks, while the thoughtfulness with which Bogard
considers such broadly diverse issues as the impact of working the night shift and the persecution of bats, quintessential creatures of the night, is inspiring. Bogard urges readers to weigh the ramifications of
light pollution and our failure to address them, illustrating his arguments with photographs that prove his point (most staggeringly, a satellite shot of Europe’s light pollution). Smart, surprising, and
thoroughly enjoyable.