While the story of the big has often been told, the story of the small has not yet even been outlined. With Dust, Joseph Amato enthralls the reader with the first history of the small and the invisible. Dust is a poetic meditation on how dust has been experienced and the small has been imagined across the ages. Examining a thousand years of Western civilization—from the naturalism of medieval philosophy, to the artistry of the Renaissance, to the scientific and industrial revolutions, to the modern worlds of nanotechnology and viral diseases—Dust offers a savvy story of the genesis of the microcosm.

Dust, which fills the deepest recesses of space, pervades all earthly things. Throughout the ages it has been the smallest yet the most common element of everyday life. Of all small things, dust has been the most minute particulate the eye sees and the hand touches. Indeed, until this century, dust was simply accepted as a fundamental condition of life; like darkness, it marked the boundary between the seen and the unseen.

With the full advent of scientific discovery, technological innovation, and social control, dust has been partitioned, dissected, manipulated, and even invented. In place of traditional and generic dust, a highly diverse particulate has been discovered and examined. Like so much else that was once considered minute, dust has been magnified by the twentieth-century transformations of our conception of the small. These transformations—which took form in the laboratory through images of atoms, molecules, cells, and microbes—defined anew not only dust and the physical world but also the human body and mind. Amato dazzles the reader with his account of how this powerful microcosm challenges the imagination to grasp the magnitude of the small, and the infinity of the finite.

Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000

Foreword, by Jeffrey Burton Russell
Introduction: Little Things Mean a Lot
1. Of Times When Dust Was the Companion of All
2. Old Metaphors and New Measures of the Microcosm
3. Early Discernment of the Minute
4. The Great Cleanup
5. Atoms and Microbes: New Guides to the Small and Invisible
6. Discerning the Invisible for the Good of the Nation
7. Lighting Up the Microcosm
8. The Snake Still Lurks
Conclusion: Who Will Tremble at These Marvels?
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Personal Thoughts and Thanks

Joseph A. Amato is Dean of Rural and Regional Studies at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota. Some of his most recent titles include 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).

"Amato's penetrating history provides a unique perspective on how greatly we have altered our environment and perhaps our nature, bringing new poignancy to the recognition that from dust we came and to dust we shall return."— Booklist

"The very inventions that brought light, heat, running water, and sanitation to society created new miasmas and particulate matter to darken and poison the earth. . . . [Amato] has forcefully underscored just how much humankind has both suffered and feared, celebrated and revered, the visible world of dust."—Kirkus

"A diverting, thought-provoking amalgam of science, literature, intellectual and social history. Playful yet serious, Amato’s supple prose conveys the hidden poetry of his subject"—Los Angeles Times

"Amato writes well; he is a litterateur, an elegant stylist and, presumably, a good historian. Clearly, though, Amato is no scientist…I'm sure many lay readers will find this book entertaining."—Nature

"This one won't sit on your coffee table collecting, well, eponymous stuff."—Chicago Tribune, Editor's Choice

"Both suggestive and well written. It is also printed on beautiful acid-free paper, to prevent it from turning into dust."—Daily Telegraph (UK)

"A brisk social, medical and philosophical overview of humanity's relationship to the small and invisible."—Washington Post

"... what sustains this book is the question that really interests him about today's subatomic, virtual-reality age: 'will this transformation of the human relationship to the small and the invisible…come to constitute a revolution in imagination?'"—Economist

"Amato's love of language matches his delight in his subject. A unique perspective on how we have altered our environment and perhaps our nature."—Adult Science Books for Young Adults feature, Booklist

"One of the most clever books published last year. A brilliantly written, often humorous look at microorganisms-fleas, mites and other small things that historians usually ignore."—St. Paul Pioneer Press

"A good read for the intellectually curious."—C.G. Wood, Choice

"A readable and fascinating glimpse into the natural and cultural hisory of tiny things.... Packed into this small book is a survey of a thousand years of Western civilization as it learned to see and describe smaller and smaller particles of the natural world."—Bernard Mergen, American Studies International

"Approaching his myriad and tiny subjects from a number of angles—practical, psychological, philosophical—Amato has created an utterly original work that takes the reader on a mind-opening journey into the miniscule."—Mark Odegard, Utne Reader

"A rich intellectual narrative about how people in different places and from different times have perceived dust. Amato provides a treasure trove of interesting facts and anecdotes about our perceptions of dust in a way that cleverly mixes whimsy with wisdom."—Steve Horowitz, Icon

"Amato melds social, medical, and political history with concepts of hygiene, public policy, and natural sciences—all in the name of dust."—Science News

Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction of 2000