Dr. Thomas D. Rogers, Arthur Blank/NEH Chair in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences (2018-2021) and Associate Professor of Modern Latin American History, recently published an opinion piece in Brasil Wire. Titled “Ethanol: Fuel for Corruption,” the article was co-written with Rogers’s collaborator Jeff Manuel (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville). Rogers and Manuel are writing a transnational history of biofuels in Brazil and the United States. The Brasil Wire article situates recent ethanol-fueled corruption in a longer historical arc of biofuel business, policy, and politics within and between the two countries. Read a description of the article below, along with the full piece.

“Ethanol burst into the news cycle again last week with reports that the US ambassador to Brazil had lobbied for the cancellation of an ethanol tariff, arguing that the move would help Trump’s reelection. As historians writing a transnational history of ethanol in Brazil and the United States, we recognize the episode as part of a familiar pattern. Within and between the two countries, corruption has followed the politically-charged fuel and so have battles over its market. This history reveals the irony of the recent attacks on Brazil’s tariff.”