The collection includes manuscripts for many of Jacobs’s full-length works, often divided into chapters and marked with holograph corrections. Collected titles include Is Curly Jewish? A Political Self Portrait Illuminating Three Turbulent Decades of Social Revolt 1936-1965 (Atheneum, 1965); Prelude to Riot: A View of America from the Bottom (Random House, 1968); To Serve the Devil (with Saul Landau and Eve Pell; Random House, 1971); and The New Radicals. Various article manuscripts are included, as well. Of particular note are drafts of speeches made by Jacobs as a Senate candidate for Peace and Freedom party (1968-1970).

The collection includes professional correspondence that Jacobs maintained primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. Notables include Clark Kerr, Michael Harrington, Sargent Shriver, Arthur Schlesinger, Willard Wirtz, Max Ascoli, Jules Feiffer, Jimmy Hoffa, Robert Kennedy, Irving Howe, Noam Chomsky, and others. Additional correspondence regards speaking engagements, the Policy Research Institute, the Peace Corps, and the American Character study.

Personal memorabilia in the collection includes date books, a high school yearbook, plaques, trophies, photos, and more, dated between the 1930s and 1970s.

Printed materials in the collection consist of reports, clippings, magazines, articles, and other items. Galley proofs for Jacobs’s full-length works are present, as well.

Collected research materials for To Serve the Devil, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, The New Radicals consist of interviews, notes, and various printed materials. Other subjects include the Middle East, selective service, poverty, and the California Institute for Social Welfare.  

Bank statements, ledgers, check stubs, bills, and receipts for Paul Jacobs and Fund for the Republic, Inc. (1960s) are also included.