Originally published January 13, 2017 (Episode 74)
Introduction
This week on Historically Thinking I’m pleased to once again welcome Joseph A. Amato. You may have heard him here before, speaking about local history and family history. This time we turn to his latest book Everyday Life: How the Ordinary Became Extraordinary.
As you’ll hear, this is as much philosophy as it is history. Amato examines how things we consider boringly normal and obvious are in fact rich and strange. There is no such thing as a normal human being, a normal life, or even a normal day. Everything we take to be ordinary was once extraordinary.
Amato’s project is both unsettling and illuminating: what happens when we stop taking the everyday for granted, and instead treat it as something worthy of historical attention?
About the Guest
Joseph A. Amato is Professor Emeritus of History at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota. A “maverick historian of the first order,” he was a principal founder of the Society of Local and Regional History, and has authored numerous books on his region and locality. Trained in medieval and early modern European history, his wide-ranging works include histories of suffering, dust, walking, and surfaces. Everyday Life continues this unconventional, deeply philosophical line of inquiry.
For Further Investigation
Joseph Amato, Everyday Life: How the Ordinary Became Extraordinary (Reaktion, 2016)
Joseph Amato, Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible (California, 2000)
Joseph Amato, On Foot: A History of Walking (NYU Press, 2004)
Related Episodes
Amato on local history
Amato on family history
Listen & Discuss
What do you think counts as “ordinary” in your own life that a future historian might find extraordinary? Share your reflections in the comments—or pass this episode along to a friend who enjoys looking at the familiar with fresh eyes.
