The Arab Americans: A History
By Gregory Orfaela
2005

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. 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.)
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Book Description
Gregory Orfalea's new and definitive work spans a century-and-a-half of the life of Arab immigrants and their descendants in the United States. In The Arab Americans: A History, Orfalea has marshaled over 150 interviews and 25 years of research to tell the story that begins in 1856, when camel driver Hajdi Ali (or Hi Jolly) was hired by Jefferson Davis to cut a "camel trail" across the Southwest, and continues through the 2005 arrest of a former Virginia high school valedictorian accused of plotting with al-Qaeda. Once seen as the "benevolent stranger," as the author points out, today Arab Americans are "the malevolent stranger." His book, however, is an assault on such ignorance, both celebration and warning.
The Arab Americans is the culmination of a life's work, a landmark in the history of what it means to be an American. It is also the history of a community uniquely repressed in American scholarship, history, literature, and politics. The Arab Americans fills a sizable void, and it could not be more timely. With American troops sprawled across the Arab and Muslim world, Orfalea's work is like light in a dark tunnel-facts, not stereotypes; people, not shadows; the vibrant world of a lost American experience come to life.

Orfalea brings to this work an historian's love of meticulous and telling detail, a poet's ear, and a novelist's sense of story. The cumulative effect is symphonic and its arrival none too soon.

"Orfalea 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..." -Library Journal

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