  The next generation of gamma-ray telescopes may be able to observe gamma-ray
blazars at high redshift, possibly out to the epoch of reionization. The
spectrum of such sources should exhibit an absorption edge due to
pair-production against UV photons along the line of sight. One expects a sharp
drop in the number density of UV photons at the Lyman edge E_{L}. This implies
that the universe becomes transparent after gamma-ray photons redshift below E
(m_{e}c^2)^{2}/E_{L} 18 GeV. Thus, there is only a limited redshift interval
over which GeV photons can pair produce. This implies that any observed
absorption will probe radiation fields in the very early universe, regardless
of the subsequent star formation history of the universe. Furthermore,
measurements of differential absorption between blazars at different redshifts
can cleanly isolate the opacity due to UV emissivity at high redshift. An
observable absorption edge should be present for most reasonable radiation
fields with sufficient energy to reionize the universe. Ly-alpha photons may
provide an important component of the pair-production opacity. Observations of
a number of blazars at different redshifts will thus allow us to probe the rise
in comoving UV emissivity with time.
