Reference Library of Arab America

Four deluxe volumes — a tremendous resource for learning the history, customs, and accomplishments of Arab Americans.

About the Series

The four-volume Reference Library of Arab America is a tremendous resource for learning the history and accomplishments of Arab Americans. Essays offer substantial treatment of the lives of prominent persons and thoroughly analyze each subject's contribution to society and culture. Also included are Cultures and Ethnic Groups chapters featuring essays on countries with significant Arab populations, and three indexes — name, nationality, and occupation — facilitate research.

Arab Americans are one of the country's least understood communities, despite a presence stretching back to the 1880s, when immigrants from Greater Syria — today's Lebanon and Syria — began arriving through Ellis Island. The series gives students the context the headlines rarely do: immigration waves and their causes, family and community dynamics, religious diversity within the community (Christian as well as Muslim traditions), and the contributions of Arab Americans to medicine, business, arts, and public life.

Topics Covered

Arab American immigration — stereotypes and how to counter them — family and community dynamics — religions and religious practices — customs and traditions — nations and beliefs of the Arab world — Arabic language and culture — the role of Arab women — Arab media — holidays — historical and contemporary figures — famous Arab Americans.

In the Classroom and Library

The series anchors National Arab American Heritage Month programming in April and supports comparative immigration studies year-round — the framework in our lesson plans guide pairs its immigration chapters with the European America and Jewish America sets. The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan — the first museum devoted to Arab American history — offers educator resources that complement the printed volumes.

Timing gives this set unusual significance. Compiled before the September 2001 attacks reshaped public discourse, its essays document Arab American communities on their own terms — a baseline portrait uncolored by the years of suspicion that followed. For students studying how public perception of a community can shift, the set is both a resource and, quietly, a primary source.

Reading Pathways

The community route reads the family and community dynamics chapters first — the everyday texture of Arab American life that students rarely encounter elsewhere — before moving to history and biography. The religious literacy route uses the chapters on religions and religious practices to correct the single most common student misconception: that Arab and Muslim are synonyms. The set's treatment of Arab Christian communities, among the oldest Arab American populations, is particularly valuable here. The biography route works through famous Arab Americans by occupation index, surfacing figures in medicine, business, entertainment, and public service.

For current-events framing, pair the stereotypes chapter with a media-literacy exercise: students collect a week of news references to Arab Americans, then test them against the reference text. The contrast teaches both subjects at once, and our lesson frameworks show how to keep the exercise rigorous.

Reference Details

Format

4 deluxe hardcover volumes; appendix, bibliography, glossary, index

Length

Approximately 1,400 pages

Editor

Frank V. Castronova

ISBN

0-7876-4174-X (078764174X)

Reading level

Middle and high school; teacher resource for elementary grades

To find this set in a library near you, search WorldCat by title or ISBN. See also the rest of the series guide or the complete 31-volume collection.