Dr. Matthew Jacobson

Biography

Matthew Frye Jacobson is the Sterling Professor of American Studies and History at Yale University. He is the author of eight books focusing on race, politics, and culture in the United States, including 'Dancing Barricades: Sammy Davis, Jr.'s Long Civil Rights Era' (2023), and 'Odetta’s One Grain of Sand' (2019). His significant works include 'Historian’s Eye: Photography, History, and the American Present' (2018), 'Built: The Manchurian Candidate in Cold War America' (2006), and 'Roots of the White Ethnic Revival in Post–Civil Rights America' (2005). Jacobson has a keen interest in cultural history, especially pertaining to 19th and 20th-century immigration, ethnicity, and race, as well as U.S. expansionism. He also served as creator, writer, and lead researcher of the documentary 'Long Way Home: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Desegregation', which received a Golden Telly Award in 2019. Jacobson's current research includes political comedy's impact on U.S. culture and he is involved in a monthly webinar series hosted by Patty Limerick that focuses on the creativity involved in the historian's craft. His teaching and research encompass U.S. political culture from 1790 to the present, immigration and migration studies, popular culture, civil rights, and documentary studies, alongside a commitment to public humanities.

Research Interests