![JosephAmato](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/JosephAmato.jpg)
Joseph A. Amato (born 1938) is an American
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
and scholar. Amato was a
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
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
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
.
Education
Amato received his
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in history from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1960; his
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in history from the
Université Laval
Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montmo ...
,
Québec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
, in 1963; and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in history from the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
The University of Roc ...
in 1970. He also did post-doctoral study in the history of European cultures with Professor
Eugen Weber
Eugen Joseph Weber (April 24, 1925 – May 17, 2007) was a Romanian-born American historian with a special focus on Western civilization.
Weber became a historian because of his interest in politics, an interest dating back to at least the age ...
.
Teaching career
After teaching high school at Royal Oak, Michigan, Amato was an instructor at
Binghamton University
The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...
and the
University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...
. In 1969 Amato began teaching at the new
Southwest Minnesota State University
Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) is a public university in Marshall, Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. The university has an enrollment of approximately 8,700 students and employs 148 fa ...
(SMSU) in
Marshall, Minnesota
Marshall is a city in Lyon County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,680 at the 2010 census. Marshall is a regional center in southwest Minnesota, and the county seat of Lyon County. It is the headquarters of the Schwan Food Com ...
(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. He establishe
Crossings Pressand, in conjunction with the Society for Local and Regional History, supported over seventy publications on demographic, environmental and geographic facets in Southwest Minnesota. Amato retired from SMSU in 2003 as Professor Emeritus of Rural and Regional Studies and of History.
Writing career
![Amato2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Amato2017.jpg)
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. 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
In historiography, rural history is a field of study focusing on the history of societies in rural areas. At its inception, the field was based on the economic history of agriculture. Since the 1980s it has become increasingly influenced by social ...
. ''Rethinking Home: The Case for Local History'' (2003) was widely reviewed 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
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' Best Nonfiction of 2000 and
On Foot: A Cultural History of Walking'. ''Dust'' has been translated into
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, 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
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, in
Acadia
Acadia (french: link=no, Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17th and early ...
, pre-revolutionary
, the rural and industrial
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
and the
American West
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
. Amato describes his youth in two
memoirs
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
, ''Bypass: A Memoir'' and ''
Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
Beats Us All (And So We Love It)''.
Fourth, Amato's recent work includes
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and his first
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
. He has written five volumes of poetry, ''Buoyancies, A
Ballast
Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship, ...
Master's Log''; ''My Three Sicilies: Stories, Poems, and Histories''; ''
Diagnostics
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engineer ...
:
Poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry.
History
The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...
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
The Minnesota River ( dak, Mnísota Wakpá) is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa.
It ris ...
'', 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 and Prairie Star Award from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council.
Selected works
*Mounier and Maritain: A French Catholic Understanding of the Modern World (University of Alabama Press, 1975; republished by Ave Maria Press, 2002
*Ethics, Living or Dead? Themes in Contemporary Values (Portals Press/ Crossings Press, 1982).
*Guilt and Gratitude: A History of the Origins of Modern Conscience (Greenwood Press, 1982).
*Death Book: Terrors, Consolations, Contradictions and Paradoxes (Ellis Press, Crossings Press, 1985).
*When Father and Son Conspire: A Minnesota Farm Murder (Iowa State University Press, 1988).
*Victims and Values: A History and Theory of Suffering, (Greenwood Press, 1990).
*Servants of the Land: God, Family, and Farm, The Trinity of Belgian Economic Folkways (Crossing Press, 1990).
*A New College on the Prairie: Southwest State University's First Twenty-Five Years, 1967–1992 (Crossings Pres, 1991.
*The Great Jerusalem Artichoke Circus (
University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018.
Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
, 1993).
*The Decline of Rural Minnesota, with John Meyer, (Crossings Press, 1993).
*To Call It Home: The New Immigrants of Southwestern Minnesota, with John Meyer, John Radzilowski, Donata DeBruyckere, and Anthony Amato (Crossings Press, 1996).
*Golf Beats Us All (And So We Love It) (Johnson Books, 1997). Finalist for the 1998
Minnesota Book Awards
The Minnesota Book Awards are presented annually for books created by writers, illustrators or book artists who are Minnesotans. The award, originally established in 1988, is organized by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.
History
...
.
*Community of Strangers: Change, Turnover, Turbulence & the Transformation of a Midwestern Country Town, with John Radzilowski and assistance of John Meyer (Crossings Press, 1999).
Bypass: A Memoir (Purdue University Press 2000).
Dust: A History of the Small and Invisible (University of California Press, 2000)
*The Draining of the Great Oasis: An Environmental History of Murray County, Minnesota, ed. with Anthony Amato and Janet Timmerman (Crossings Press, 2001).
Rethinking Home: The Case for Local History (University of California Press, 2002)A Place Called Home: Writings on the Midwestern Small Town 2003 anthology edited by Richard Davies, Joseph Amato and David Pichaske (
Minnesota Historical Society Press
The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...
, 2003).
On Foot: A Cultural History of Walking (New York University Press, 2004)
*Southwest Minnesota: A Place of Many Places, written with David Pichaske,(Ellis Press/Crossings Press, 2007).
Jacob’s Well: A Case for Rethinking Family History (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008)
*Coal Cousins: Rusyn and Sicilian Stories & Pennsylvania Anthracite Histories, Crossings Press, 2008).
Surfaces, A History (University of California Press, 2013)
*Buoyancies, A Ballast Master's Log (Spoon River Poetry Press/Crossings Press, 2014).
*The Book of Twos: The Power of Contrasts, Polarities, and Contradictions (Ellis Press, 2015).
*My Three Sicilies: Stories, Poems, and Histories (Bordighera Press, 2016).
*Everyday Life: How the Ordinary Became Extraordinary (Reaktion Press, 2016).
*Diagnostics: Poetics of Time (Bordighera Press, 2017).
* Buffalo Man: Life of a Boy Giant on the Minnesota River (Crossings Press, 2018).
* Towers of Aging (Crossings Press, 2020).
* Trinity of Grace (Legas Publishing, 2020).
[Review of "Trinity of Grace":
*
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amato, Joseph A.
1938 births
Living people
American expatriates in Canada
American male writers
American poets of Italian descent
American Roman Catholic poets
American writers of Italian descent
Binghamton University faculty
Poets from Minnesota
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
University of Rochester alumni
Southwest Minnesota State University faculty
Writers from Minnesota