Background
Patrick Amory was born in New York City on July 10, 1965, to literary parents. His father, the late Hugh Amory, was noted as the most "rigorous" and "methodologically sophisticated" historian of the book in early America.
Patrick Amory was born in New York City on July 10, 1965, to literary parents. His father, the late Hugh Amory, was noted as the most "rigorous" and "methodologically sophisticated" historian of the book in early America.
He attended the Commonwealth School in Boston, Massachusetts. Patrick Amory graduated from Commonwealth School in Boston, gained a bachelor"s degree in history from Harvard University where he founded the Record Hospital program on radio station WHRB.
Amity subsequently earned an Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in late antique and early medieval history and published People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554 (Cambridge University Press). Amory"s book was considered an "illustration of the recent interest of historians in ethnogenesis" and described as "brilliant and remorseless" by Peter Brown.
The book attempted to up-end the theory of the barbarian invasions and the fall of the Western Roman Empire, via a case-study of individual reactions in the province of Italy, a core region of the Mediterranean culture-province, during a period of intense political change.
The main ideas of the book have met with mixed response, with historians such as Peter Heather objecting to some of its more radical theses. Amory had been active in independent rock since the 1980s, including stints as Rock Director and Program Director at WHRB-FM (Harvard"s radio station).
In 1994 he left academia to work as general manager of Matador Records, one of the premier independent rock record labels of the 1990s. Amory together with Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi at Matador Records are credited with pursuing the preservation of artistic freedom while preserving a viable business model through "realistic success".
Amory has lived and worked in New York City since 1994.
