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Jeff Manuel

@jeffmanuel

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

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Latest posts by Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel

If you're an editor or journalist looking for experts who can speak knowledgeably about previous oil crises, the program from this 2024 conference has a great list.

06.03.2026 21:38 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Don Toliver Scores His Second Rap No. 1 in 3 Weeks As ‘E85’ Tops Chart Two weeks after Don Toliver's first Hot Rap Songs chart No. 1 with "Body," "E85" is on top. Travis Scott co-produced both, from the album OCTANE.

"Ethanol is so boring," they said, "no one cares." Well, check out the number one song on the hot rap charts right now: Don Toliver's "E85" from his "Octane" album. Obviously, this song is a hidden analysis of flex-fuel vehicle policies 😂
www.billboard.com/music/chart-...

05.03.2026 14:27 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Top Links 1027 Why the US gas business loves exports. Unger on Keynes. Decarbonization coalitions & the last Mauds in America. Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze

Very cool to see the paintings of my friend Paula Kamps featured in @adamtooze.bsky.social's chartbook
adamtooze.substack.com/p/top-links-...

28.02.2026 16:46 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This may not exactly answer your question, but books have a level of permanence and longevity that those other formats do not. Do you want your work available to readers far into the future?

25.02.2026 19:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Good point. I think about Faludi's _Stiffed_ all the time. Published in 1999 and way ahead of its time.

13.02.2026 17:01 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Reflections on Minneapolis While Watching a Citizenship Naturalization Ceremony – Jeff Manuel

I wrote about the strangeness of following events in Minneapolis—where I'm from—and watching a citizenship naturalization ceremony in St. Louis, which is my home now. Not sure if anyone wants or needs more words about these things, but here are mine.
jeffmanuel.com/blog-1/2026/...

06.02.2026 21:04 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

co-authoring: it's not for everybody

29.01.2026 19:37 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Moving closer to the joke that financial markets are just astrology for men

29.01.2026 19:34 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The cover of a book titled Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner

The cover of a book titled Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner

A page of text from a book titled "Genesis"

A page of text from a book titled "Genesis"

If you need a reading recommendation while hunkered down for a winter storm, this is the best one, bar none

24.01.2026 02:31 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Email from University of Minnesota

It's free and online. Registration here view.ecommunications2.umn.edu?qs=baa334565...

20.01.2026 18:44 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

If you'd like some Minnesota-related news that's not terrible, Tom Rogers and I will be talking about our book, _Ethanol: A Hemispheric History for the Future of Biofuels_, as part of the University of Minnesota History Department's book club on Wednesday, February 11, from 6-7 pm.

20.01.2026 18:44 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Both look great, thank you!

13.01.2026 17:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thanks!

13.01.2026 17:42 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Thank you!

13.01.2026 17:41 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Historians: is there a good book or article on the history of the League of Women Voters? A student will be processing an archival collection of local LWV records and I'm looking for relevant background readings. Thanks!
🗃️

12.01.2026 20:21 👍 7 🔁 6 💬 4 📌 0
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‘Shaped By Its Past’ | Ethanol Producer Magazine Multiple themes emerge as historians compare the historic development of ethanol production and policy in Brazil and the U.S.

Thanks to Ethanol Producer Magazine (the trade magazine for biofuels, in case you're not a subscriber) for featuring _Ethanol: A Hemispheric History_ in the current issue.
ethanolproducer.com/articles/sha...

08.01.2026 17:22 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

In the 2000s, I met a t-shirt buyer for Target. According to him, he tried to revive Vaurnet as an ironic retro brand but couldn’t pull it off for some reason.

01.01.2026 02:24 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

This is like a Cory Arcangel installation piece

29.12.2025 20:16 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Opinion | When A.I. Took My Job, I Bought a Chain Saw

This is a rare example of doing two type of opeds often done poorly well (AI & Rust Belt op-eds)

29.12.2025 01:59 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
Photo of a plastic manatee tea infuser on the side of a white Christmas mug

Photo of a plastic manatee tea infuser on the side of a white Christmas mug

This mana-tea infuser is a favorite gift this year. But pouring hot water on this guy feels like a sad metaphor for climate change.

28.12.2025 22:24 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Which do you find more annoying: bad handwriting or doing tech support?

28.12.2025 00:37 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

So long as you’re okay assessing content knowledge rather than the structure of an argument, bluebooks.

28.12.2025 00:35 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Whoa. Didn’t know about this. Thanks for sharing.

26.12.2025 17:06 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Agreed. This is an issue of priorities. Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois maintain hundreds of miles of incredible dedicated bike trails. There's no reason the riverfront trail couldn't be just a nice (except for after a flood 😅)

26.12.2025 16:31 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I was just talking about what kind of bicycle you can ride while wearing a blazer without looking silly. The answer is
(a) a classic roadster, or
(b) anything if you’re Humphrey Bogart.

25.12.2025 22:41 👍 43 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 0
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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...

In our recent book, Tom Rogers and I tell the story of how a state-level regulator in Maine, of all places, uncovered the MTBE water pollution crisis. One of my favorite stories from the book.
www.oupress.com/978080619601...

23.12.2025 15:59 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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What Caused the U.S. Ethanol Boom? - farmdoc daily Scott Irwin -

On FarmDoc daily, Scott Irwin has a nice analysis of the timing of US corn ethanol investments and the Renewable Fuel Standards. In short, banning MTBE as a fuel additive *before* RFS was a causal factor.
farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2025/12/what...

23.12.2025 15:52 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Looking forward to a brave new future where AI plays the Costello to my Abbott

22.12.2025 16:49 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Screenshot of an AI summary that confuses NCAR for NASCAR

Screenshot of an AI summary that confuses NCAR for NASCAR

Trying to understand why the Trump administration is dismantling NCAR, so I asked for an AI summary. But now I'm more confused than ever

22.12.2025 15:47 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

creating new blind spots. Microfilm did the same two generations prior. Seems like we historians should channel a bit more of our customary sanguinary at this moment.

22.12.2025 02:59 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0