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Title details for Muslims of the Heartland by Edward E. Curtis IV - Available

Muslims of the Heartland

How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest

by Edward E. Curtis IV
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Winner of the 2023 Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Book Award from the Arab American National Museum
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023
Uncovers the surprising history of Muslim life in the early American Midwest
The American Midwest is often thought of as uniformly white, and shaped exclusively by Christian values. However, this view of the region as an unvarying landscape fails to consider a significant community at its very heart. Muslims of the Heartland uncovers the long history of Muslims in a part of the country where many readers would not expect to find them.
Edward E. Curtis IV, a descendant of Syrian Midwesterners, vividly portrays the intrepid men and women who busted sod on the short-grass prairies of the Dakotas, peddled needles and lace on the streets of Cedar Rapids, and worked in the railroad car factories of Michigan City. This intimate portrait follows the stories of individuals such as farmer Mary Juma, pacifist Kassem Rameden, poet Aliya Hassen, and bookmaker Kamel Osman from the early 1900s through World War I, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and World War II. Its story-driven approach places Syrian Americans at the center of key American institutions like the assembly line, the family farm, the dance hall, and the public school, showing how the first two generations of Midwestern Syrians created a life that was Arab, Muslim, and American, all at the same time.
Muslims of the Heartland recreates what the Syrian Muslim Midwest looked, sounded, felt, and smelled like—from the allspice-seasoned lamb and rice shared in mosque basements to the sound of the trains on the Rock Island Line rolling past the dry goods store. It recovers a multicultural history of the American Midwest that cannot be ignored.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 15, 2022

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781479812578

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781479812578
      • File size: 8690 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      December 1, 2021
      A multicultural view of a huge swath of America. Curtis, a professor of liberal arts and religious studies, draws on rich archival sources to create a vivid portrait of Syrian communities in the Midwest from 1900 to the 1950s. Himself the great-grandson of a Syrian immigrant and son of an Arab mother and White father who grew up in the Bible Belt of southern Illinois, Curtis reveals the extent to which Arabic-speaking Christians and Muslims "built a world of shared networks, friendships, and political interests before World War II." Fighting against "the bleaching of Midwestern history," which represents the Midwest as dominated by White Christians, Curtis depicts a diverse region that "became America's Arab Muslim heartland." Inspired by tales of opportunity, immigrants from Ottoman Syria--which included Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan--flocked to the Dakotas, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana, where many got their starts as grocers, factory workers, or homesteaders. As the author illuminates the lives of many Syrian families, he emphasizes their aspiration to assimilate while still maintaining ethnic and religious ties to their heritage. The mosques they built, he asserts, were not only sites for prayer, but also cultural and social centers, places where families could share food and convene for celebrations. Always aware of America's pervasive "color line," Syrians encountered negative views of Muslims that portrayed them as violent and hedonistic. At various times, they also faced legal challenges to their status. For example, in 1909, the "Department of Commerce and Labor said that Syrian-born people were not white, but Asiatic (that is, Asian or Oriental)"; in 1915, that ruling was reversed, making Syrians eligible for naturalized citizenship; in 1924, the National Origins Act implemented a racist immigrant quota system that made it nearly impossible for Syrians to enter the country while favoring immigrants from "Nordic" European countries. Hardly an "unassimilable" group, as Curtis amply shows, they contributed significantly to the communities in which they lived. A fresh portrayal of American history and identity.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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