EDWARDSVILLE - The work of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Jeffrey Manuel, PhD, associate professor of historical studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, has achieved the 2016 Hamlin Garland Prize from the Midwestern History Association (MHA).
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According to the MHA, the award recognizes Manuel’s 2015 book, Taconite Dreams: The Struggle to Sustain Mining on Minnesota’s Iron Range, 1915-2000, as representative of “the best in popular history writing about the American Midwest.”
“It is an honor for my work to have been selected among the many great books published last year on Midwestern history,” Manuel said. “Taconite Dreams documents the history of deindustrialization in the region, which remains one of the Midwest’s pressing problems.”
Manuel is a Minnesota native who supports the MHA’s mission of “reviving Midwestern History.”
“History of the American Midwest as a region has not received the recognition it deserves,” Manuel said. “I hope my book sheds new light on the upper Great Lakes region, a section of the Midwest that has often been overlooked by historians focused on Midwestern cities or farms.”
The Midwestern History Association, created in the fall of 2014, is dedicated to rebuilding the field of Midwestern history, which has suffered from decades of neglect and inattention. The MHA advocates for greater attention to Midwestern history among professional historians, seeks to rebuild the infrastructure necessary for the study of the American Midwest, promotes greater academic discourse relating to Midwestern history, supports the work of the new journal Middle West Review and other journals which promote the study of the Midwest, and offers prizes to scholars who excel in the study of the Midwest.
Central to SIUE’s exceptional and comprehensive education, the College of Arts and Sciences has 19 departments and 85 areas of study. More than 300 full-time faculty/instructors deliver classes to more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty help students explore diverse ideas and experiences, while learning to think and live as fulfilled, productive members of the global community. Study abroad, service-learning, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities better prepare SIUE students not only to succeed in our region's workplaces, but also to become valuable leaders who make important contributions to our communities.
