Joseph A. Amato

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Amato in 2017 JosephAmato.jpg
Amato in 2017

Joseph A. Amato (born 1938) is an American author and scholar. Amato was a history professor and university dean of local and regional history. He has written extensively on European intellectual and cultural history, and the history of Southwestern Minnesota. Since retiring, he has continued publishing history books, as well as five poetry collections and his first novel.

Contents

Education

Amato received his B.A. in history from the University of Michigan in 1960; his M.A. in history from the Université Laval, Québec, in 1963; and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Rochester in 1970. He also did post-doctoral study in the history of European cultures with Professor Eugen Weber.

Teaching career

After teaching high school at Royal Oak, Michigan, Amato was an instructor at Binghamton University and the University of California, Riverside. In 1969 Amato began teaching at the new Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) in Marshall, Minnesota (originally Southwest Minnesota State College). He was a founder and chair of the History Department, one of the architects of the university’s Rural Studies curriculum in the 1970s, and a principal founder of the Society for Local and Regional History. [1] He established Crossings Press and, in conjunction with the Society for Local and Regional History, supported over seventy publications on demographic, environmental and geographic facets in Southwest Minnesota. [2] Amato retired from SMSU in 2003 as Professor Emeritus of Rural and Regional Studies and of History.

Writing career

Amato discussing his work Amato2017.jpg
Amato discussing his work

Collections of his writings, notebooks, interviews, and reviews of his writing are held at SMSU's regional research and history center and the Literary Manuscript Collections of the Elmer Anderson Library, at the University of Minnesota. [3] In addition to numerous reviews and articles in scholarly and popular journals, Amato's writing falls roughly into four fields:

First, local, regional, and rural history. Rethinking Home: The Case for Local History (2003) was widely reviewed [4] and featured at several national conferences. On multiple fronts he has continued to study, teach and write about local and regional history and the power of place in determining experience and identity.

Second, European cultural and intellectual history. Among his notable books are Dust: A History of the Small and Invisible , which won the Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction of 2000 [5] and On Foot: A Cultural History of Walking . Dust has been translated into Italian, German, and other languages.

Third, family, self, and community. Among his books in this area: Jacob’s Well: A Case for Rethinking Family History (2008) traces seven generations of his family’s migrations from Europe, in Acadia, pre-revolutionary Massachusetts, the rural and industrial Midwest and the American West. Amato describes his youth in two memoirs, Bypass: A Memoir and Golf Beats Us All (And So We Love It).

Fourth, Amato's recent work includes poetry and his first novel. He has written five volumes of poetry, Buoyancies, A Ballast Master's Log; [6] My Three Sicilies: Stories, Poems, and Histories; Diagnostics: Poetics of Time; Towers of Aging (Crossings Press, 2020); and The Trinity of Grace (Legas Publishing, 2020). His first novel, Buffalo Man: Life of a Boy Giant on the Minnesota River , was published by Crossings Press in 2018.

Amato's books won have won him nominations, selections, and honors, of particular note the Minnesota Humanities Prize for Literature [7] and Prairie Star Award from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council. [8]

Selected works

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References

  1. ↑ "About Us".
  2. ↑ "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2014-02-26.
  3. ↑ http://special.lib.umn.edu/manuscripts/literary.html Literary Manuscripts Collection], Elmer Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, located at 213 Andersen Library_222 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota
  4. ↑ Rethinking Home 'University of California Press
  5. ↑ Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction of 2000
  6. ↑ Spoon River Poetry Press, care of http://www.ellispress.com/and%5B%5D Crossings Press, http://www.josephaamato.com/publications.html
  7. ↑ "The Minnesota Book Awards - Special Awards". Archived from the original on 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  8. ↑ http://swmarts.org/grants/special-awards/prairie-star-award/%5B%5D
  9. ↑ Reviews of Mounier and Maritain: A French Catholic Understanding of the Modern World:
  10. ↑ Review of Ethics, Living or Dead:
  11. ↑ Review of Guilt and Gratitude: A Study of the Origins of Contemporary Conscience:
  12. ↑ Review of Death Book:
    • Klass, D. (1985), OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, 16 (3): 281{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  13. ↑ Review of When Father and Son Conspire:
  14. ↑ Reviews of Victims and Values: A History and a Theory of Suffering:
  15. ↑ Review of Servants of the Land: God, Family, and Farm: The Trinity of Belgian Economic Folkways in Southern Minnesota:
  16. ↑ Review of A New College on the Prairie: Southwest State University's First Twenty-Five Years, 1967-1992:
  17. ↑ Reviews of The Great Jerusalem Artichoke Circus:
  18. ↑ Review of The Decline of Rural Minnesota:
    • Ellenbogen, Bert (Summer 1995), "Review", Rural Sociology, 60 (2): 355, ProQuest   1290920056
  19. ↑ Reviews of To Call It Home: The New Immigrants of Southwestern Minnesota
    • Stull, Donald D. (1997), Social Thought & Research, 20 (1/2): 201–203, JSTOR   23252144 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Dorais, Louis-Jacques (Spring 1998), The International Migration Review, 32 (1): 244–245, doi:10.2307/2547580, JSTOR   2547580 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Gerber, David A. (Fall 1998), Journal of American Ethnic History, 18 (1): 93–102, JSTOR   27502375 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  20. ↑ 1998 Minnesota Book Awards Author Readings, Minnesota Reflections, retrieved 2018-10-24
  21. ↑ Review of Community of Strangers: Change, Turnover, Turbulence & the Transformation of a Midwestern Country Town:
  22. ↑ Reviews of Bypass: A Memoir:
  23. ↑ Reviews of Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible:
  24. ↑ Review of Draining the Great Oasis: An Environmental History of Murray County, Minnesota:
  25. ↑ Reviews of Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History:
  26. ↑ Review of A Place Called Home: Writings on the Midwestern Small Town:
    • Miller, John E. (2003–2004), Minnesota History, 58 (8): 417, JSTOR   20188395 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  27. ↑ Reviews of On Foot: A History of Walking:
  28. ↑ Reviews of Jacob's Well: A Case for Rethinking Family History:
  29. ↑ Reviews of Surfaces: A History:
  30. ↑ Review of "Buoyancies: A Ballast Master's Log":
    • Preston, Joshua (Winter 2014), The Rain Taxi Review of Books{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  31. ↑ Review of "My Three Sicilies":
    • Risso, Roberto (Summer 2017), The Italian Americana: 258–259{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  32. ↑ Review of "Everyday Life: How the Ordinary Became Extraordinary":
  33. ↑ Review of "Diagnostics: Poetics of Time":
    • Yost, Dana (Fall 2017), Sicilia Parra, XXIX (2){{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  34. ↑ Review of "Towers of Aging":
  35. ↑ Review of "Trinity of Grace":
    • Yerxa, Donald (2020), Sicilia Parra{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
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