Description
Book SynopsisThe author of this text proposes a bold approach to writing local history in this exploration of the meaning of place and home. Arguing that people of every place and time deserve a history, he explores such topics as the history of madness and the environment in southwestern Minnesota.
Trade Review"Rethinking Home is pioneering scholarship at its best. Amato's eloquent plea for scholars to rethink the Intricate relationships between home, place, nation, and world is one that cannot be ignored." - Richard O. Davies, University Foundation Professor, University of Nevada; "Local history is the stepchild of our profession. Joseph Amato has emancipated Cinderella. Innovative and engaging, his passion for particulars brings life to people and places whose interest we have underrated far too long; and provides a good read beside."-Eugen Weber, Department of History, UCLA; "How pleasantly odd, how wonderful that a book on local history should be so rousing, so encouraging, so redemptive! Rethinking Home is a veritable call to arms for those of us who care deeply about the special, the distinctive character of our own home places, our own locales."-Bradley P. Dean, Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods
Table of ContentsMaps Foreword Introduction. The Concept and the Practitioners of Local History 1. A Place Called Home 2. Grasses, Waters, and Muskrats: A Region's Compasses 3. The Rule of Market and the Law of the Land 4. Writing History through the Senses: Sounds 5. Anger: Mapping the Emotional Landscape 6. The Clandestine 7. Madness 8. Madame Bovary and a Lilac Shirt: Literature and Local History 9. The Red Rock: Inventing Peoples and Towns 10. Business First and Always Conclusion: The Plight of the Local Historian Notes Acknowledgments and Sources Index
