Hietala, Thomas R. 1952–

PERSONAL: Born February 1, 1952, in Biwabik, MN; son of Lloyd C. (a truck driver) and Angeline O. (a homemaker; maiden name, Miletich) Hietala; married Heather T. Kenvin, July 1, 1989; children: Kyle A. Ethnicity: "Finnish, Croatian, Slovenian." Education: Gustavus Adolphus College, graduated (summa cum laude), 1974; Yale University, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1979. Politics: Democrat/Progressive. Religion: Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—26 Fore Seasons Dr., Grinnell, IA 50112-3006. Office—215 Mears Cottage, 1213 6th Ave., Grinnell, IA 50112-1690.

CAREER: Yale University, New Haven, CT, lecturer in history, 1979–80; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, visiting assistant professor of history, 1980–85; Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, assistant professor, 1985–89, associate professor, 1989–99, professor of history, 1999–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Danforth fellow, 1974–78; Distinguished Teaching Award, Yale University, 1979; cited for "outstanding academic title," Choice, 2003, for The Fight of the Century: Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and the Struggle for Racial Equality.

WRITINGS:

Manifest Design: Anxiety and Aggrandizement, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1985, revised edition published as Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003.

The Fight of the Century: Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and the Struggle for Racial Equality, M.E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book "that will revisit and reassess boxer Muhammad Ali and his career and historical context, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s."

SIDELIGHTS: Thomas R. Hietala told CA: "As a scholar and writer, I strive to produce well-researched, informative, lively, and persuasive texts that examine and reinterpret past events, issues, and people of significance. History can instruct and humanize in many ways, but only if historians define topics and compose works that attract and engage a wide audience. Historical literacy promotes understanding of cultures and institutions and thereby fosters civic awareness and a capacity to transcend today's parochialism and partisanship. Good history teaches vital lessons about the primacy of evidence, the value of extensive research, the importance of questioning assumptions, and proper methods for analyzing and interpreting data. History is a way of learning and knowing that is applicable to virtually all disciplines and professions.

"My writing is a complement to my teaching, and my teaching informs my writing. My recent book, The Fight of the Century: Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and the Struggle for Racial Equality, places boxing champions Jack Johnson and Joe Louis in a rich and revealing historical context and traces the deep and stubborn roots of American racist notions, habits, and policies. Manifest Design: Anxiety and Aggrandizement, my first book, challenged the popular slogan 'manifest destiny' as an explanation for American westward expansion. Americans often live blithely behind a veil of comforting assumptions and illusions about themselves and their heritage. My scholarship seeks to uncover and expose a more contradictory and troubling past, a legacy of splendid achievements and tragic failures that link past to present.

"I view writing as both process and product. The author sculpts multiple drafts until the final version attains the right economy of language, vivid imagery, and clarity of meaning. To that end, good writing shares stellar qualities whether labeled prose or poetry, fiction or nonfiction. Among my favorite authors are Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Langston Hughes, George Orwell, and William Faulkner. In different ways, these writers instruct and entertain as they invite readers to see life through different lenses. Society would do well to encourage more reading, writing, and thinking, and less talking. The well-written text remains an indispensable antidote to the toxins of the sound-bite and one-liner."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2002, John Green, review of The Fight of the Century: Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and the Struggle for Racial Equality, p. 193.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 2003, Phillip H. Vaughan, review of The Fight of the Century, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 2002, review of The Fight of the Century, p. 61.