iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 5h

When I saw that @farsouthhistory.bsky.social needed a reviewer for a book on fishing in southern Illinois for H-Environment, I figured there can't be too many environmental historians in southern Illinois who also like fishing 😅 Here's the review. www.h-net.org/reviews/show...

h-net.org

051

Reposted by Jeff Manuel

Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 6h

Check out @jeffmanuel.bsky.social's review of Colby Simms's "Southern Illinois Fishing: A Comprehensive Guide for Anglers," published in 2025 by Southern Illinois University Press; review now available @hnetreviews.bsky.social #envhist #envhum #fishing www.h-net.org/reviews/show...

h-net.org

022

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Both in private conversations and published articles, I'm hearing alarm bells about coming food inflation from climate factors + geopolitics

131

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

My presentation to the Working-Class Studies Association Annual Meeting in 2007 :)

Screenshot of a conference presentation title from a program

020

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

With the breakdown in US-Canada trade talks today, I'm reposting on my blog an op-ed I published in early 2025 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch arguing this is madness. It was then, it still is today. jeffmanuel.com/blog-1/2026/...

jeffmanuel.com

Repost: Midwesterners Can’t Afford Trump’s Jokes about Annexing Canada – Jeff Manuel

040

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

People in the trades getting into fistfights over Milwaukee versus Dewalt

050

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

So you're saying the "retro-grouch" cyclist painstakingly putting vintage campy components in the ultrasonic cleaner is really just a grouch?

100

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Same. It's been strange for me since it usually comes up while I'm teaching a career exploration class for history majors, but a world where we have more plumbers with history BAs is good by me. Affordable public universities are the linchpin for that.

110

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Yep, this is clearly being driven by kids, not parents. That's why I think the visuals the kids are getting through social media is important.

010

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

One of my pet theories for why Gen Z is in love with the trades is simply that they're more visually suited to Instagram and TikTok. Every white-collar job looks the same in a photo--person at laptop--and it looks boring. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/s...

nytimes.com

Mom, Dad, I Want to Be a Welder

Gen Z is increasingly turning to trade schools in hopes of future-proofing their careers against A.I. But getting their parents and peers on board can be a challenge.

230

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

If you haven't read it, check out @zacharyschrag.bsky.social's book on the history of the Metro. It probably has the answer! www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

press.jhu.edu

The Great Society Subway

A History of the Washington Metro

181

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Funny example of how much has changed

000

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Clip from a 1978 newspaper column explaining what's excluded from the Energy Tax Act tax credits

140

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

New article alert: "Doing County-Level Digital History at a Regional University: Reflecting on Ten Years of the Madison Historical Project." My co-authors and I share thoughts on the value of local digital history over the long run. 🗃️ cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/doing-c...

cuny.manifoldapp.org

Doing County-Level Digital History at a Regional University: Reflecting on Ten Years of the <em>Madison Historical</em> Project | Doing County-Level Digital History at a Regional University: Reflectin...

By Nichol Allen, Angela Little, Jeffrey T. Manuel, Ben Ostermeier, and Jason Stacy

040

Reposted by Jeff Manuel

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

For Offrange, I wrote about my dad's career as an oats broker and how he and others remade the oat supply chain 40 years ago. Farm policy pushed oats off US farms, Canadian farmers embraced neoliberalism and met the demand, & they filled taconite freighters with oats! ambrook.com/offrange/per...

ambrook.com

My Dad Helped Build North America’s Oat Supply Chain: Can It Be Remade?

In the wake of headlines about the “Oat Mafia” attempting to disrupt America’s oat infrastructure, one writer shares some lessons from the recent past.

2128

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

If you enjoyed that one, check out @arielron.bsky.social's book, Grassroots Leviathan, and his article on "King Hay" (versus King Cotton). Both focus on 19th century US agriculture, but paint a different picture than the traditional agricultural South versus industrial North story.

130

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Same for a 14yo, except it's 20 minutes and it's the whole box of cereal

020

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

You could also rank these by watershed. Certainly, the Twin Cities is the leader in the Mississippi River basin. If you include the Missouri, then Sioux Falls and Great Falls have to be in the mix. I don't know the Ohio well enough to pick a winner there.

011

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

worth remembering that modern concepts of academic freedom in the US emerged in part from tensions with John D. Rockefeller. It's an oil story all the way down

120

Reposted by Jeff Manuel

Michael Chesnut @michaelchesnut.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Good story here of oats, the US, Canada, farm policy, and the Canadian Prairies

141

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Thanks to Offrange editor @jessehirsch.bsky.social for his help crafting this story.

010

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

ambrook.com

My Dad Helped Build North America’s Oat Supply Chain: Can It Be Remade?

In the wake of headlines about the “Oat Mafia” attempting to disrupt America’s oat infrastructure, one writer shares some lessons from the recent past.

2128

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

My question is what's the plan for the future? During the 80s farm crisis they were at least willing to try things like CRP. Now, it feels like there's no policy vision beyond helicopter money to farmers, most of which will vanish into higher rents, input costs, etc.

230

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Great review. I'm glad to hear it wasn't just my connection to southwest Illinois that made it compelling.

010

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

For a book of leftist politics, which don't usually tend toward humor, Roediger has funny little anecdotes: watching the 2011 World Series with Angela Davis, taking Paul Gilroy to the Mall of America, being in the University of Wisconsin history department was an occupational disease, etc.

030

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I haven't read much coverage of David Roediger's recent memoir, _An Ordinary White_, but I just finished it and would recommend it. Fascinating stuff about St. Louis, Chicago, the origins of whiteness scholarship in the 1990s, and his razor-sharp critique of the modern university. 🗃️

fordhampress.com

An Ordinary White - David Roediger

A prize-winning historian details his intellectual and political evolution Written by the author of the landmark book The Wages of Whiteness and one of the key figures in the critical study of race an...

391

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

As someone who once wrote an undergrad thesis on music and deindustrialization in Youngstown, this looks fascinating!

110

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Many of the interviews now skew toward advice or "vibes/takes." There's less description of specific, personal experiences. I suspect that today's abundant audio sources will end up being much less valuable to future historians than the 20th century oral history collections are. 🗃️

031

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I've been assigning oral history assignments to my college students for a long time. The podcasting boom has made the technical side of things much, much easier. Smartphones and AI transcription have dramatically lowered the barriers to entry. But podcasts are now shaping what interviewees say+

141

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

She then took off and blasted through a section of wooden fence like she was the freaking Kool-Aid man. This morning, she's back in my yard, limping but otherwise okay. An absolute unit.

040

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Deer update: about ten hours after posting this, the deer got snarled trying to jump a neighbor's fence. Police came and the neighbor asked if they'd put it down. Police said they won't discharge a firearm in a residential neighborhood. They unbolted part of the fence and the deer got out +

120

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Hmmm. I'd also be skeptical of that as a common read, but not much you can do. Another way to contextualize it would be with a section from _Is Your Work Worth It?_ (2024). It's not a perfect book, but it gives a good typology of "job," "career," and "calling" orientations toward work.

120

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Same. I used it once in my former "Careers in History" class. Not really useful, in my opinion. Something like Terkel's _Working_ or more recent oral history collections on work are better.

110

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

If you're a student trying to quickly get up to speed on critical theory and the Frankfort School, this Alex Ross article on Habermas has a straightforward narrative summary: newyorker.substack.com/p/jurgen-hab...

newyorker.substack.com

Jürgen Habermas Defended Reason in a Darkening Age

Alex Ross on the late German philosopher.

020

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

lol, forgot about that great clip

010

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I have a short comment about the policies driving used cooking-oil theft for Inc. magazine. This is one of those things no one thinks about when making policy, but years later there are crooks outside Dirty Harry's beach bar, stealing the old grease. www.inc.com/amaya-nichol...

inc.com

Why Thieves Are Suddenly Targeting the Trash Behind Beachside Restaurants

Two men were just arrested in Delaware for stealing this common waste product. Here's why officials don't think it's an isolated incident.

010

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Does she really have a little glass bottle of "enzymes"?

230

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

The St. Louis region often feels like the land the time forgot. But the upside is that I get to stop at North America's last remaining Mister Donut

A photograph of a Mister Donut street sign with blue sky in the background

Photograph of a brown building with a Mister Donut sign on the wall

120

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Looks less like a Hyundai Santa Cruz than I expected (that's a good thing)

000

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Today I read a book written in the late 1980s arguing that once the US and USSR normalized trade relations, they would join together to fight climate change

060

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

"alternative academic:" the name for jobs that are academic adjacent but aren't faculty

110

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Re-reading _All the King's Men_ for the first time since high school. As a middle-aged academic, I now realize the book is a long exploration of one man's alt-ac career.

150

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Interviewing archivists and I've learned a new word

winnie the pooh meme joking about the word "arrearage"

110

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

A beautiful tribute to Paula Kamps, an artist and a friend. She will be missed. mailchi.mp/mleblancchic...

mailchi.mp

Remembering Paula Kamps (1990-2026)

000