Joseph A. Amato is Professor of Rural and Regional Studies at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota, and principal founder of the Society for Local and Regional History. He is the author of "Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible "(California, 2000), "Bypass: a Memoir "(2000), "Golf Beats Us All (So We Love It) "(1997); "The Decline of Rural Minnesota "(1993); "The Great Jerusalem Artichoke Circus: The Buying and Selling of the American Rural Dream "(1993); and "Victims and Values: A History and Theory of Suffering "(1990), and a forthcoming history of walking.