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.
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