Joseph A. Amato

It would be fair to say that historian Joseph Amato agrees that all history starts on a personal level. And while you certainly don't need to convince history and genealogy buffs of this, one only needs to remember high school history classes, where general histories are blandly summated, to realize that the most interesting aspects—the things that make one feel as close to the past as to the present—can easily be forgotten. In Jacob's Well: A Case for Rethinking Family History, Amato sheds light on various moments in history by tracing his own ancestry back seven generations. Through narratives, storytelling, and research he demonstrates how learning about any family tree (his is a self-professed "mongrel" line marked by poverty and obscurity) sheds light on crucial moments in time, and binds us closer to our shared history.
Sun., Feb. 24, 2 p.m., 2008