The Arab Americans

Since 9/11, Arab Americans have been the subject of much discussion inboth popular and scholarly forums. Books on the suddenly visible Arab-American community have been published recently or are forthcoming, andcourses dealing with Arab Americans are gradually entering university curricula.This interest is cross-disciplinary, having become evident in numeroushumanities and social science fields.Yet this interest is bound largely to the political marketplace of ideas, foran emergent Arab-American studies existed well before 9/11 and had been onthe brink of increased visibility on the eve of 9/11. It took 9/11, however, forthis body of scholarship to generate broad attention. In addition, 9/11 alteredthe trajectories that had already been established, though not as dramaticallyas an unaffiliated observer might believe. Gregory Orfalea was among thegroup of scholars and artists who were assessing Arab America before 9/11through his work as a writer and editor. Orfalea continues his contribution tothat project with his latest book, The Arab Americans: A History, a voluminoustext that mixes exposition, commentary, and analysis.The author’s cross-disciplinary book will be of interest to students andscholars in the humanities and the social sciences, for it contains elements ofhistoriography, sociology, literary criticism, memoir, and anthropology. Theintroduction and first chapter recount a trip he took as a young man in 1972with his jaddu (grandfather) to Arbeen, Syria, his grandfather’s hometown.Subsequent chapters explore a number of sociocultural and political issuesof interest to the Arab-American community, including the politics of theArab world, activism (historical and contemporary) in Arab America, therelationship between Arab Americans and the American government at boththe local and federal levels, religious traditions in Arab America, and theinstability and diversity of Arab-American identity ...