Joseph A. Amato is the author of several books. He received his B.A. in History from the University of Michigan in 1960; his M.A. in History from the Université de Laval, Québec, in 1963, and Ph.D. in History from the University of Rochester, New York, in 1970. In 1969 Amato began teaching at Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) in Marshall, Minnesota, where he was a founder and chair of the History Department. He taught a range of courses in European intellectual and cultural history and historiography, with a particular interest in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, German, Italian, and French histories and European rural life, as well as taught ethics and introductory social science courses.