Jeffrey Manuel
Professor
Peck Hall 3218
Office Phone: 618-650-2836
Email: jemanue@siue.edu
Personal Website: jeffmanuel.com
Bio
Jeffrey T. Manuel is a Professor in the Department of History at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Manuel's current research explores the history of biofuels (especially ethanol) in the United States and Brazil. His book, Ethanol: A Hemispheric History for the Future of Biofuels, co-authored with Thomas D. Rogers, is forthcoming from the University of Oklahoma Press.
Manuel's research focuses on the history of energy, technology, and the environment. Manuel is the author of Taconite Dreams: The Struggle to Sustain Mining on Minnesota's Iron Range, 1915-2000. His research on the history of the iron ore industry also appeared in Technology and Culture and Mining North America: An Environmental History Since 1522.
Manuel is also active in public and oral history. His work as a public historian has appeared in several journals and he has served as curator and online producer for exhibitions in Minnesota and Illinois. He has interpreted the 1918 lynching of Robert Prager in Collinsville, Illinois, and he is a co-editor of Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive for Madison County, Illinois.
Research Focus
Energy History
Environmental History
History of Technology
Public History
Oral History
Courses Taught
American Environmental History
History of Technology
Energy and Environment in US History
Oral History
Public History
Careers in History
U.S. History and Constitution, 1877 to Present
Selected Publications
Book and Book Chapters
Taconite Dreams: The Struggle to Sustain Mining on Minnesota's Iron Range, 1915-2000. University of Minnesota Press, 2015. Winner of the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Non-Fiction and the Hamlin Garland Award from the Midwestern History Association.
“Pittsburgh’s Colony in St. Paul’s Hinterland: Tensions between Iron Ore Mining and Environmental Policy on the Modern Iron Range.” In Nature’s Crossroads: The Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, edited by George Vrtis and Christopher W. Wells. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023.
"Efficiency, Economics, and Environmentalism: Low-Grade Iron Ore Mining in the Lake Superior District, 1913-2010." In Mining North America: An Environmental History since 1522. Edited by J. R. McNeill and George Vrtis. University of California Press, 2017.
Academic Articles
"Lessons from a Forgotten Fuel: Assessing the Long History of Alcohol Fuel Advocacy and Use in the United States," History and Technology 37, no. 4 (April 2022): 411-428.
"Iowa's Original Ethanol Debate: The Power Alcohol Movement of 1933-1934," Annals of Iowa 77, no. 1 (Winter 2018): 41-78.
(With Matthew Schunke) "Meeting Students Where They Are Online But Leading Them Somewhere More Interesting: Reflections on Teaching the Facebook Class," College Teaching 64, no. 3 (2016): 112-118.
"Mr. Taconite: Edward W. Davis and the Promotion of Low-Grade Iron Ore, 1913-1955," Technology and Culture 54, no. 2 (2013): 317-45.
(With Rebecca Amato) "Using Radical Public History Tours to Reframe Urban Crime," Radical History Review, no. 113 (2012): 212-24.
"Rethinking the Social in Social Studies," The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies 71, no. 2 (2010): 1-11.
(With Andrew T. Urban) "'You Can't Legislate the Heart': Minneapolis Mayor Charles Stenvig and the Politics of Law and Order," American Studies 49, no. 3/4 (2008): 195-219.
(With Lisa Blee, Caley Horan, Brian Tochterman, Andrew Urban, and Julie Weiskopf) "Engaging with Public Engagement: Public History and Graduate Pedagogy," Radical History Review 102 (2008): 73-89.
"The Sound of the Plain White Folk? Creating Country Music's 'Social Origins,'" Popular Music and Society 31, no. 4 (2008): 417-31.
Popular Articles
"Edwardsville Oil Spill Is a Wake Up Call About Fossil Fuel Dependence," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 19, 2022.
(With Tom Rogers) "Biden's Carbon Farming Policy Must Heed Recent Lessons," The Hill, January 27, 2021.
“Technical Literature and the Text-Searchable: The History of Technology and the Digitized Turn,” Technology’s Stories 8, no. 1 (January 5, 2021).
(With Tom Rogers) “Os paralelos entre o Brasil e os Estados Unidos,” Estadão de São Paulo, September 28, 2021. [English version available here.]
(With Tom Rogers) “Ethanol: Fuel for Corruption,” Brasil Wire, August 13, 2020.
“The Case of the Hijacked Statue of the Great Abolitionist,” Public Seminar, July 31, 2020.
(With Tom Rogers) “The US Ethanol Industry Should Take a Leaf Out of São Paulo’s Book,” The Brazilian Report, March 9, 2020.
(With Tom Rogers) “Who Is Driving Our Ethanol Policy? And Why Does It Matter?” The Hill, December 26, 2019.
“Will Ken Burns Whitewash Country Music’s Multiracial Roots?” Washington Post, Made by History blog, September 15, 2019.
“The Lynching of Robert Prager,” We’re History blog, April 5, 2018.
“A Shared Inquiry into Shared Inquiry in the Public History Classroom," History@Work blog, National Council on Public History. October 25, 2017.
