Books

The Perennial Alternative: The History of Ethanol in the United States and Brazil and Lessons for a Renewable Energy Future. Book manuscript under review. Co-authored with Tom Rogers.

Taconite Dreams: The Struggle to Sustain Mining on Minnesota’s Iron Range, 1915-2000.
Purchase from University of Minnesota Press
Purchase from Amazon

Op-Eds, Essays, and Other Writing for General Audiences

“Our Neighbo(u)rs the North, Aflame: On John Vaillant’s ‘Fire Weather,’” Cleveland Review of Books, March 12, 2024.

“My American Family Moved from the US to Canada. Education at My Son’s School in Calgary Was Focused More on Fun and Adventure,” Business Insider, November 18, 2023.

“Choosing a College Major: Here’s What Students Need to Know About Choosing a Major So They Succeed in College,” Business Insider, November 15, 2023.

“Transition Away from Fossil Fuels Needed to Preserve High Quality of Life in Alberta,” Calgary Herald, May 24, 2023.

“Edwardsville Oil Spill Is a Wake-Up Call About Fossil-Fuel Dependence,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. March 19, 2022.

“Biden’s Carbon Farming Policy Must Heed Recent Lessons,” The Hill, January 27, 2021. With Tom Rogers.

“Technical Literature and the Text-Searchable: The History of Technology and the Digitized Turn,” Technology’s Stories, January 5, 2021.

“Os paralelos entre o Brasil e os Estados Unidos,” Estadão de São Paulo, September 28, 2020. With Tom Rogers. (In Portuguese)

“Ethanol: Fuel for Corruption,” Brasil Wire, August 13, 2020. With Tom Rogers.

“The Case of the Hijacked Statue of the Great Abolitionist,” Public Seminar, July 31, 2020.

“The U.S. 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, October 25, 2017.

“Teaching Historiography: A Panel Report,” Process: A Blog for American History, January 12, 2016.

“Public History and Public Libraries: A Natural Affinity,” Public History Commons blog, April 28, 2015.

“Introduction: Education Reform Past, Present, and Future.” The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies 74, no. 2 (October 2013): 1-5.

Chapters in Edited Collections

“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.
Purchase from University of Pittsburgh Press
Purchase on Amazon

“Economics, Efficiency, and Environmentalism: Low-Grade Iron Ore Mining in the Lake Superior District, 1915-2010,” in Mining North America: An Environmental History since 1522, edited by J. R. McNeil and George Vrtis.
Purchase from University of California Press
Purchase on Amazon

Articles in Academic Journals

“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 (2022): 411-428.
Link (paywall)
Open-access version

“Iowa’s Original Ethanol Debate: The Power Alcohol Movement of 1933-1934.” Annals of Iowa 76, no. 1 (2018): 41-78. (Winner of the Mildred Throne and Charles Aldrich Award from the State Historical Society of Iowa.)
Link

“Meeting Students Where They Are Online, But Leading Them Somewhere More Interesting: Reflections on Teaching The Facebook Class.” College Teaching 64, no. 3 (2016): 112-18. With Matthew Schunke.
Link (paywall)
Open-access version

“Mr. Taconite: Edward W. Davis and the Promotion of Low-Grade Iron Ore, 1913-1955.” Technology and Culture 54, no. 2 (2013): 317-45.
Link

“Using Radical Public History Tours to Reframe Urban Crime.” Radical History Review, no. 113 (2012): 212-24. With Rebecca Amato.
Link (paywall)

“Rethinking the Social in Social Studies.” The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies 71, no. 2 (2010): 1-11.
Link

“‘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 Andrew T. Urban.
Link

“Engaging with Public Engagement: Public History and Graduate Pedagogy.” Radical History Review, no. 102 (2008): 73-89. With Lisa Blee, Caley Horan, Brian Tochterman, Andrew Urban, and Julie Weiskopf.
Link (paywall)

“The Sound of the Plain White Folk? Creating Country Music’s ‘Social Origins.’” Popular Music and Society 31, no. 4 (2008): 417-31.
Link (paywall)