The Arab Americans: A History

Publishers Weekly

Thrust into the national spotlight on 9/11, Arab-Americans have since been vilified and defended by fellow citizens still trying to make sense of the catastrophe-yet the community itself remains one of America's least understood. Indeed, as Orfalea (Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry) explains, the U.S. Census Bureau doesn't even recognize the community's roughly three million members as an ethnic group. This volume, a substantial update of Orfalea's 1988 Before the Flames, traces the century-long arc of Arab immigration, illuminating assimilation and ethnic politics with a loving yet candid eye as the narrative shifts between observations historical, personal and statistical. It comes as something of a surprise to learn, for instance, that only 23% of the community is Muslim. Beautifully written, the book is a much-needed entry in an all but empty field, and is blessedly free of both jargon and jingoism. By grounding the narrative with accounts of his own trips to Lebanon and Syria, Orfalea provides additional depth. If his volume has a flaw, it is its occasional indulgence in long strings of personal interviews; clearly, Orfalea wanted to honor as many as he could. Unavoidably, history morphs into current events as post-9/11 reality comes to frame the community. Since that date, says one Syrian-born interviewee, "we don't feel we're in America anymore." In a nation of immigrants, such observations strike very close to the bone. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Arab Americans have long been an integral part of America's ethnic mosaic. Christopher Columbus's primary translator, a Spanish Arab from Granada (which was under Islamo-Arab control for 600 years until 1492), was probably the first person of Islamic faith to come to America. However, Arabs as an immigrant group didn't begin to arrive to the New World until the mid-19th century, so the last two centuries are naturally the focus of this book. Orfalea (director, writing ctr., Pitzer Coll., CA), himself an Arab American, gives a detailed and highly readable account of the three major waves of Arab immigration to America, from 1878 to 1924, 1947 to 1966, and 1967 to the present, providing an intimate description of today's Arab Americans and their historical experiences. He also discusses the country's principal Arab American organizations and examines the impact of post-9/11 developments on the Arab American community. This eminently clear and well-written book is essential for anyone interested in going beyond the media stereotypes of Arab Americans. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.-Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An idiosyncratic account of Arab immigrants and their native-born children in America. Orfalea (Writing/Pitzer College) doesn't trade in ethnic history on a par with, say, Manuel Gonzales's Mexicanos (1999) or Michael Coffey's The Irish in America (1998). Rather, he offers a family-and-friends-based account of the three major waves of Arab immigration to the U.S., as with his reminiscence of a colleague: "In the dead of winter, in January 2005, Hisham Sharabi died of cancer in Beirut at 77. If not Palestine, at least he had palms and the sea and his beauties nearby. From my perch in California looking out at the snowy San Bernardinos, I see him smile." Among his interviewees are writer Vance Bourjaily, "one of the only serious American novelists of Lebanese heritage to make a name for himself in fiction" (William Peter Blatty, of Exorcist fame, lacks sufficient gravitas to count); a Yemeni doctor in Michigan who has given up haunting libraries for fear of falling victim to the Patriot Act; actor F. Murray Abraham, who remarks, "I'm half Syrian, half Italian-of course I empathize with any Mediterranean people, especially Semites"; Paul Orfalea, founder of the Kinko's copy shop chain; and entertainers Casey Kasem and Danny Thomas, ever careful to avoid alienating the mainstream audience. When Orfalea does write straight history, he often falls into error: Estevanico, servant of conquistadors, was a Moor, not an Arab, and was killed by Zunis, not Navajos; Hadj Ali, one of the first Muslim immigrants to America, was a Greek convert who used his birth name for official purposes, not an Arab who was forced by unfeeling immigration officials to take a non-Islamic name. Such slips serve theauthor's contention that Arabs have suffered aplenty in the New World, but they undermine his authority. A start toward recording the history of an underdocumented, influential presence in American society, but be warned: The book has mistakes.