Jeff Manuel
LightNews LightNews
banner
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Jeff Manuel
@jeffmanuel.bsky.social
1.4K followers 820 following 1.4K posts
Historian of Energy, Technology, and the Environment; Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Coauthor of "Ethanol: A Hemispheric History for the Future of Biofuels;” Public and Oral History Practitioner.
jeffmanuel.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · Oct 7
It's the official publication day for ETHANOL: A HEMISPHERIC HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOFUELS. Want to know why the US turns 40 percent of the corn crop into fuel? How the US and Brazil became the world's two largest ethanol producers? Tom Rogers and I have answers.
www.oupress.com/978080619601...
Ethanol - University of Oklahoma Press
Though ethanol, a liquid fuel made from agricultural byproducts, has generated controversy in recent years—good or bad for the environment? a big-ag boon o...
www.oupress.com
Reposted by Jeff Manuel
theonion.com
Study: Average 19th-Century American Spent 93% Of Time Waving At Trains, Boats https://theonion.com/study-average-19th-century-american-spent-93-of-time-waving-at-trains-boats/
Study: Average 19th-Century American Spent 93% Of Time Waving At Trains, Boats
November 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
I have a general rule of thumb: if Carlo Rotella publishes something, I try to read it
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
I’m a Professor. A.I. Has Changed My Classroom, but Not for the Worse.
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:25 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
I've been transcribing a collection of Civil War correspondence this month and, anyways, Happy Thanksgiving from Sgt. Edward Duckels of the 122nd Illinois Volunteers, who was guarding the Mobile & Ohio railroad at Humboldt, TN, and hunting wild turkeys in 1862.
🗃️
Screenshot of a handwritten pen on paper letter from the Civil War
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
'Tis the season...
for endlessly writing "superscript footnote numbers go *after* the punctuation mark"
November 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Things I did not know: Japan has 50k bears, they keep attacking and even killing people.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/w...
The Hunt Is On for Bears in Japan After Deadly Attacks
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:09 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Looked at Google Scholar Labs this afternoon. No matter what you think about AI (who am I kidding, this is Bluesky!), classroom teachers should know about it. My department has a key "lit review" assignment for undergrads, but I'm not sure for how much longer...
blog.google/outreach-ini...
We’re introducing Google Scholar Labs to answer your research questions.
Today, we are introducing Google Scholar Labs, a new feature that explores how generative AI can transform the process of answering detailed scholarly research questions…
blog.google
November 19, 2025 at 10:52 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
As a guest on a podcast yesterday, I flubbed the opening and said I was a "long-time caller, first-time listener." Now realizing this is a good description of social media, though.
November 19, 2025 at 5:33 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Any other academics beginning to see students looking to grad school as a hideout from a bad entry-level job market?
November 18, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Jeff Manuel
calebwellum.bsky.social
Thanks to @modamhist.bsky.social for publishing my conversation with @imreszeman.bsky.social, Bob Johnson, Cara Daggett, and Jennifer Wenzel on history and the energy humanities. We hope it is helpful! Check it out here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
“Energy Humanities and American History” | Modern American History | Cambridge Core
“Energy Humanities and American History”
www.cambridge.org
November 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Trump's agricultural policy has been inconsistent, to put it nicely. But worth noting that American Compass, the Trump/Vance-aligned economics think tank, is now publishing articles advocating New Deal-style acreage reduction
www.commonplace.org/p/end-the-ba...
End the Bailouts, Save the Farmers
Disaster has been averted, but it’s time to change course on soy exports.
www.commonplace.org
November 17, 2025 at 12:07 AM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
At long last, I read @tj-stiles.bsky.social's 2002 biography of Jesse James. Although I moved from Minnesota to Missouri a decade and half ago (now in SW Illinois), I feel like this book finally gave me a key to understanding Missouri's politics and culture.
November 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
If you're planing to spend the weekend preparing for the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Monday, but you just don't know enough about the taconite pellets that were in the ship's ill-fated hold, may I recommend a book for you?
www.upress.umn.edu/978081669430...
🗃️
Taconite Dreams
Winner of the Midwestern History Association's 2016 Hamlin Garland Prize The Iron Range earned its name honestly: it was once among the world’s richest ...
www.upress.umn.edu
November 7, 2025 at 7:34 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Heads up, energy historians, Ty Priest's new book on the history of offshore oil is coming this spring
🗃️
lsupress.org/978080718602...
Offshore Oildom
Offshore Oildom tells the riveting story of the United States’ quest to secure the oil riches of the sea. Drawing on a wealth of untapped sources, Tyler Pr...
lsupress.org
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Alberta company proposing to use wood burned in wildfires to fuel power plants. This reads like an epilogue for the next edition of @johnvaillant.bsky.social's book, _Fire Weather_.
www.globenewswire.com/news-release...
Forest Fire Deadwood Creates Opportunity for Two Global Biofuel Production Sites in Northern Alberta
PowerWood to build two Alberta production plants for converting wildfire deadwood into low-carbon black pellets, creating 500 jobs and reducing fire...
www.globenewswire.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:56 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
My local Fox station ran a story about the photo collection my students digitized this fall.

Profs, if your students do something cool that’s public-facing, write up a little press release and get it out to local media!

fox2now.com/news/illinoi...
fox2now.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:05 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
As a prof at a regional public, I think this is a funny parody ad campaign
featherstone.university
Featherstone University
featherstone.university
November 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
At my university's surplus property warehouse, trying to get this beauty for my office
A light blue old computer in a jumble of old office supplies.
October 28, 2025 at 6:34 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Since the discourse™️ is debating working-class culture and appearance this morning, let me recommend Ryan Murphy’s great new book, _Teamster’s Metropolis_, which is an analysis of the culture and bodies of Teamsters at midcentury.
press.umich.edu/Books/T/Team...
Teamsters Metropolis
In the 1950s, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters empowered poor immigrants who had grown up in the crowded blocks of the central city to move upward and outward to comfortable suburbs. It deli...
press.umich.edu
October 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Really interesting development. ADM's successful CCS operation at its Decatur, IL, corn mill hasn't seen much coverage, but it may be a sign of things to come. US corn ethanol plants have been piloting CCS for a long time. That's going to attract more attention now.
October 23, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Jeff Manuel
dudleymarianna.bsky.social
‘Low-Carbon Histories for Zero-Carbon Futures’ is out today @jofhistgeog.bsky.social - a collective case for thinking historically about energy. doi.org/10.1016/j.jh...
Climate crisis has made the transition from carbon-rich to low-carbon energy systems an existential necessity for the future of our planet. This article sets out how greater attention to low-carbon energy history, currently a neglected component of modern energy development, should comprise an essential part of building a zero-carbon future. We argue for the usefulness of low-carbon as a capacious term that foregrounds the historic and ongoing relationality between low- and high-carbon energy, and set out the ways this has shaped energy infrastructures, practices, and imaginaries through the twentieth century to the present. We outline a range of analytics—materiality, scaling, community—around which critical understandings of low-carbon energy can be gained. And we show that decarbonization, while urgent, does not have to be speculative: the historical examples provided here offer valuable insights into the social and spatial impacts and temporal challenges of introducing new energy infrastructure and decommissioning old that can, and should, be paid more attention. Title page: Low-Carbon histories for zero-carbon futures, by Elizabeth Chatterjee, Marianna Dudley, Linda Ross, and Hiroki Shin, in the Journal of Historical Geography
October 23, 2025 at 7:24 AM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Excellent deep dive into the pressures facing large commodity growers in the Mississippi Valley today and how they evolved from decades of US farm policy.
arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
Dirt rich, cash poor: As economic pressures mount, some Delta farmers hoe their last row - Arkansas Times
Federal aid favors big farms, but even the biggest operations in Arkansas are in danger of failing.
arktimes.com
October 22, 2025 at 2:31 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Digitizing some 1970s posters from our campus archive today. This one advertising a speech by Buckminster Fuller is amazing.
A poster for a talk by Buckminster Fuller titled "Shaping the Environment"
October 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Jeff Manuel
jasonheppler.org
In the mailbag! @jeffmanuel.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by Jeff Manuel
rebeccawingo.bsky.social
It's been a while, but I have exciting news! Our department is hiring a Digital Historian with a specialization in Early America. Help us spread the word by sharing this opportunity within your networks. #DigitalHistory #DH #HigherEdJobs

jobs.uc.edu/job/Cincinna...
Assistant Professor in Digital and Early American History, Department of History, College of A&S
Assistant Professor in Digital and Early American History, Department of History, College of A&S
jobs.uc.edu
October 19, 2025 at 1:37 PM
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
Full program for "The Power of Energy" online conference sponsored by the Hagley Library, 10/30-10/31. Looking forward to this! 🗃️
the power of energy A virtual conference organized by the Hagley Library October 30 and 31, 2025 Advance registration required, hagley.org/FC2025 9-9:15 - WELCOME 9:15-10:45 - ENERGY SOVEREIGNTIES Jennifer Eaglin, Ohio State University, “Alternative Energies, the Environment, and Development in Brazil” Ashoka Manchala, University of Zurich, “Shifting Contexts of a Coal Company: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited and ‘Semi- sovereign’ Energy in Hyderabad, 1886-1952” Comment: Elizabeth Chatterjee, University of Chicago 11:00-12:45 - ENERGY FLOWS, INFORMATION FLOWS Tom Cinq-Mars, Duke University, “In Search of “Friendship”: An Archaeology of the World’s Longest Oil Pipeline in the Soviet Bloc” Amanda DeMarco, University of California-San Diego, “China’s “Informational Opening”: Reform-Era PRC-FRG Coal Delegations as Market Research” Elliott Sturtevant, Florida International University, “Nature’s Storehouse is Man’s Benefactor: Designing Infinite Growth along the Niagara Frontier” Comment: Christopher Jones, Arizona State 1:30-3:00 - COERCED ENERGIES Parveen Kumar, University of Delhi, “Forced Labor and the Energy Infrastructure of Japanese Wartime Expansion in SE Asia” Christian Robles-Baez, Stanford University, “Railwayless: How Human and Animal Power in Brazil Paved the Way for the Global Coffee Market” Comment: Diana Montano, Washington University in St. Louis FRIDAY OCTOBER 31 9:00-10:45 - ENERGY IN THE HOME BEYOND THE DOMESTIC Minseok Jang, University of Albany, SUNY, “Burning from Below: Yeontan and the Birth of South Korean Environmentalism” Alexandra Quantrill, Pratt Institute, “Women and the Grid: Electrical Experiments in 1920s Britain” Rebecca Geoffroy-Schwinden, University of North Texas, “Gunpowder, Industrial Capitalism, and Tata at the Piano” Comment: Chelsea Schields, University of California - Irvine 11:00-12:45 - HISTORIES OF CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGIES Nancy Campbell, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, “Our Shared Ledger: A Parochial Energy Histor…
October 14, 2025 at 6:33 PM