There aren't a lot of classes at Boston College where students enjoy hearing their professor scream and shout for 50 minutes. But no one complains when Seth Jacobs, a professor in the history department, gets up to the podium in McGuinn 121 three times a week. In fact, it's a treat.
There's good reason it's hard to find a seat in his America's War in Vietnam class. What makes Jacobs so intriguing is what he brings to the class. But it's not the degrees from Yale, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern that make him such an intriguing scholar, though they do help. It's not even his theater background that moves the class so well, yet this certainly provides some greatly appreciated entertainment. There are plenty of professors in the world, let alone here at BC, that love what they teach; but it's reasonable to say that Jacobs has a borderline psychopathic passion for history, and especially the Vietnam War. And it's breathtaking to watch.
At the root of it all, Jacobs is an expert. In spite of knowing almost nothing of history when he started his graduate education, Jacobs fell in love with the Vietnam War from his first class on it. It's a subject dear to his heart because of its controversial nature, as well as the wealth of information available to analyze. As he states, it's one of the most contested topics in American history, and it "really fires people up."
He also adds, "The Vietnam War is such an emotional and controversial topic even today for so many people. That's why I love teaching it. It inspires so much debate and people get so empowered. Few topics in history cause people to argue like it does."
In his early career, he would come to class with a list of points that needed to be addressed by any means possible, because with his vast knowledge of a topic this controversial, he found it so easy to focus on one specific point for too long. The wealth of knowledge he possesses could have been more of a curse than a blessing, but his passion for learning makes him teach for the class and not for his own entertainment.
On top of this dedication, Jacobs is backed up by tremendous resources, as the only thing possibly more entertaining than himself is the rare footage he shows to exemplify his points. With the help of quite a bit of grant money, Jacobs has amassed some of the rarest Vietnam, World War II, and Cold War-era footage that can still be found today. In just the first three weeks of class, students were exposed to Nazi and American propaganda, a nuclear explosion, and the horrors of fighting in Southeast Asia. Nobody can complain that the lectures have been even the slightest bit dry.
Born in Texas, raised in New York, and educated in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Chicago, Jacobs now resides in Woburn, Mass., with his wife of 17 years and his two daughters, 11-year-old Miranda and 8-year-old Sophie. Both Miranda and Sophie were born while he was still in graduate school, forcing him to finish his dissertation in only five years, as opposed to the standard seven.
Since joining the faculty in 2001, Jacobs has taught numerous history courses, including seminars on the '50s, the '60s, and the Vietnam War, as well as a class on foreign policy. Both the foreign policy class and America's War in Vietnam are being offered this semester. Both his 747-page dissertation and his second book were written on Vietnam, focusing more specifically on the Diem regime, a topic he feels has not been covered enough despite its importance in setting the stage for the Vietnam War. His latest book, soon to be in publication, details a history of relations between the United States and Laos. Now, most people don't even really know where Laos is (it actually neighbors Vietnam), but Jacobs' new book has shed light on its importance to the events that unfolded in Southeast Asia during the Cold War.
Jacobs' love for teaching, even though it was discovered years after his undergraduate education, is unique and selfless. Since returning to Boston, he's been involved in many community service organizations, but the two that stood out most for him both concentrated on education. He participated in a Read-Aloud program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and Teachers For a New Era. Teachers For a New Era is a program that allows college professors to assist local high school teachers prepare material and reach students in schools that are not exactly considered "well to do." This program not only brought him a newfound respect for high school teachers, but it served to reinforce his appreciation for the BC student body.
If you've taken one of his classes, you've heard him profess his love for the student body for its hard work and motivation. Teachers For a New Era opened his eyes to the fact that students are hard to motivate, and as a high school teacher, it's your job to do just that. Being a professor at BC, Jacobs found that students here consistently motivate themselves, and has gone as far as to say he will never work anywhere else because of the productive and continually impressive work ethic he so often sees.
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