author
Jacob Elon Conner
1862–1949
A political scientist, diplomat, and travel writer, he moved between academic work and public service at the turn of the twentieth century. His books mix policy, international affairs, and firsthand observations from the wider world.
1 Audiobook
Uncle Sam Abroad
by Jacob Elon Conner
About the author
Born in Wilmington, Ohio, in 1862, Jacob Elon Conner was an American writer, political scientist, and diplomat. He studied at Yale and the University of Chicago, later taught economics and worked in labor and public-affairs roles before entering U.S. consular service.
Conner is especially remembered for serving as the first U.S. consul in Saigon from 1907 to 1909. He also wrote on politics and international questions, including Uncle Sam Abroad and The Development of Belligerent Occupation, and his travels in Southeast Asia led to published accounts of places such as Angkor.
His career shows an unusual mix of scholarship, government service, and travel writing. Some later works associated with him, including Christ Was Not a Jew, are controversial, so he is often of interest both as a public figure of his era and as a writer whose books reflect the arguments and tensions of their time.