Seth Jacobs

Boston College

Seth Jacobs is Professor of History at Boston College. He is a political and cultural historian of the United States in the twentieth century, especially the period since World War II, and his research interests focus on the connection between U.S. domestic culture and foreign policy. His books include America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950-1957 (Duke University Press, 2004), Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950-1963 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), The Universe Unraveling: American Foreign Policy in Cold War Laos (Cornell University Press, 2012), and Rogue Diplomats: The Proud Tradition of Disobedience in American Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2020). The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations has honored Jacobs with two Stuart L. Bernath Prizes: for best article published in the field of U.S. diplomatic history (2002) and best book (2006). He won the New England Historical Association’s James P. Hanlan Book Award in 2013.

Jacobs’ videos are part of the following Choices Program curriculum unit:
The Vietnam War: Origins, History, and Legacies