Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a wide range of public activities, Dr. Jacobs co-edits the “Chicago Series in American Politics” for the University of Chicago Press and has published ten scholarly books including: The Unsustainable American State (with Desmond King, Oxford University Press, 2009); Talking Together: Public Deliberation in America and the Search for Community (with Fay Lomax Cook and Michael Delli Carpini , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), Class War? Economic Inequality and the American Dream (with Benjamin Page , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), The Private Abuse of the Public Interest (with Lawrence Brown, University of Chicago Press, 2008), Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair (with James Morone, Oxford University Press, 2005), Inequality and American Democracy (with Theda Skocpol, Russell Sage Press, 2005), and Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness (with Robert Y. Shapiro, University of Chicago Press, 2000). He has also authored numerous articles in the American Political Science Review, New England Journal of Medicine, World Politics, Comparative Politics, Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly and other scholarly outlets. He has received a number of awards and grants including funding from the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and other sources.

Jacobs’ research has been published and discussed in a number of mass media outlets, including the BBC, National Public Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio as well as ABC, NBC, CBS News, CNN, CSPAN, MSNBC, and The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, The Chicago Tribune, The Economist, The Washington Monthly, The Pioneer Press, The Star Tribune, The New Republic, Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, and the National Journal, among others. He has made regular presentations at the National Press Club and is a political analyst for the CBS affiliate in Minnesota, WCCO.

His research has been recognized by a number of prizes. His book Politicians Don’t Pander received the Goldsmith Book Prize from Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center for Press and Politics, the Neustadt Book Prize from the American Political Science Association, and the Distinguished Book Prize in political sociology from the American Sociological Association. In addition, his articles have received awards from the American Political Science Association and International Communications Association. Dr. Jacobs also received a prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award in Health Policy Research.

He chaired the Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy, which was convened by the American Political Science Association.

Jacobs received a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a B.A from Oberlin College.

Show full bio

Hide full bio