Joseph Amato on Local History and the Decline of Rural America

Joe Amato, emeritus professor of history at Southwest Minnesota State University, is a prolific and creative scholar. He has published eye-opening books on unique topics (his most recent is Surfaces: A History). He is also a veteran practitioner of the kinds of history most avidly pursued by non-academics: genealogy and local history. The January, April, and June issues of the 2013 volume of the Historical Society's bulletin Historically Speaking feature a three-part essay series by Amato, "Place and American History," where he ruminates on these seemingly mundane--though in his hands anything but--historiographical genres. Recently Amato spoke to South Dakota Public Radio's Nathan Puhl about these essays. You can listen to their conversation here.