Author Description

By the early twenty-first century, the United States will experience a demographic change as those groups previously thought of as minorities become the majority. Arab-Americans, a fast-growing group from Asia and northern Africa, are among those who will soon form part of this new majority. The Development of Arab-American Identity offers an account of the Arab-American experience from the early immigration to the present day. What do Arab-Americans think of traditional American values? How do they perceive their treatment as new immigrants? Have they been seriously alienated from the dominant culture? This collection of essays answers these questions, dealing in particular with the contemporary scene. After the historical background has been set, the essays in this book deal with the struggle for religious, political, cultural, and social identity, all of which involve coping with unconscious and conscious stereotyping and marginalization of Arabs and Arab-Americans.