The story of the 125,000 speakers of Arabic who came to the United States between 1890 and 1940 is told here. Most of these immigrants were members of Christian denominations; others were Arab Jews and Muslims. By creating and maintaining strong communities in the United States, these immigrants were able to overcome the hardship and troubles faced in a strange, new land.

This collection of original essays and case studies, based on the IHRC's 1983 Hitti Symposium, restores a little-known chapter of America's ethnic and immigration history.

Eleven essays include:

Samir Khalaf, "The Background and Causes of Lebanese/Syrian Immigration to the United States Before World War I"
Michael W. Suleiman, "Early Arab Americans: The Search for Identity"
Nancy Faires Conklin and Nora Faires, "`Colored' and Catholic: The Lebanese in Birmingham, Alabama"
Evelyn Shakir, "Good Work, Good Times: The Syrian Ladies'Aid Society of Boston, 1917-1932"
Bayly Winder "Philip Khuri Hitti (1886-1978): An Homage"
Jean Gibran and Khalil Gibran, "The Symbolic Quest of Kahlil Gibran: The Arab As Artist in America"
Gregory Orfalea, "'There's a Wire Brush at My Bones'"

Editor Eric J. Hooglund taught Middle East history and was a senior analyst for Middle East documents at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. when this book was published.

Of related interest:

Annotated Index to the Syrian World, 1926-1932 in Bibliographies, Indexes, and Surveys section.

Documenting Diversity: A Report on the Conference on Documenting the Immigrant Experience in the United States of America

By the CDIE Planning Committee; 1991.

ISBN 0-932833-12-8
108 pp.
Paper $5.95

In 1990, the IHRC held a conference to discuss the relationship between immigration and ethnicity, assess the current state of documentation of the ethnic experience, and create the initial outline of a national strategy to document the immigrant experience in America. This report includes workshop summaries, findings, recommendations, and an agenda for action to improve collection, preservation, and access to sources.

"If your work takes you into the field of immigration and ethnic history, make sure a copy of this report reaches your shop." - from American Archivist (Spring 1992)

Included papers:

Rudolph J. Vecoli "Why a Conference on Documenting the Immigrant Experience"
John Grabowski "Archivists and Immigrants, Embarking for New Destinations Together"
Joel Wurl "The Archival Golden Door: Thoughts on Improving the State of Historical Documentation"
Kathleen Neils Conzen "Hunting the Snark; or, The Historian's Quest for Immigrant Documentation"
Alan Kraut "In Their Own Words: Why Historians Need a Documentary History of the Immigrant Experience"
Mary Lynn McCree Bryan "Voices for the Voiceless: A Means to an End"

The Greek American Experience

The 1989 the IHRC's "The Greek American Experience: A Conference on the State of Scholarship and an Agenda for the Future" opened up new and important research areas in Greek American studies, and served as the impetus for the formation of the Greek American Studies Association. Some of the conference papers were printed in a monograph and some in a special issue of the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora.

At the time of publication, Charles C. Moskos was professor of sociology at Northwestern University. Dan Georgakas taught at the Van Arsdale School of Labor Studies, Empire State College - SUNY.

New Directions in Greek American Studies

Ed. Dan Georgakas and Charles C. Moskos; Pella Publishing Co., 1991.

ISBN 0-918618-47-9
182 pp.
Paper $20.00

Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora

(XVI:1-4, Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter, 1989)

Ed. Dan Georgakas and Charles C. Moskos; Pella Publishing Co., 1991.

ISSN 0364-2976
183 pp.
Paper $18.00

Immigrant Heritage Recipe Collection

Ed. Mary Ann Novak et al., preface Donna Gabaccia, 2007.

ISBN 978-0-932833-19-8
165 pp.
Paper $11.95

A “deliciously tasteful” cookbook that brings together 130+ diverse recipes from the IHRC’s ethnic collections AND the center’s friends. Categories from soups to desserts. Limited edition, spiral bound cookbook. See flyer description and special order form (pdf).

Italian Immigrants in Rural and Small Town America

Ed. Rudolph J. Vecoli; American Italian Historical Association, 1987.

204 pp.
Cloth $24.95; Paper $12.95

The Italian immigrants to the United States did not exclusively settle in the large, urban centers of America. Many settled in smaller factory towns, mining villages, and farms in rural areas, establishing small, yet vibrant, communities. The makeup of these communities and their interaction with non-Italian neighbors is studied in this book, based on papers presented at the 1981 AIHA conference.

This collection of essays presents a picture of the development of Italian communities outside the urban centers of the United States and Canada, and sheds light on an oft-ignored aspect of the Italian American experience.

Essays include:

Ryan Rudnicki, "Patterns of Italian Immigrant Settlement"
Ernesto Milani, "Marchigiani and Veneti on Sunny Side Plantation"
Valentine J. Belfiglio, "Italians in Small Town and Rural Texas"
John Potestio, "Itinerant Grimaldesi: Paesani on the Railways of North America"
John Zucchi, "Immigrant Friulani in North America"
Carla Bianco, "Italian Folk Culture Transplanted: Methods of Documentation"
Paola A. Sensi-Isolani, "Tradition and Transition in California Paese"
John Andreozzi, "Italian Farmers in Cumberland"
Jacqueline Rocchio Moran, "Little Italy: A Casualty of Time in Duluth"
Antonio Pucci "Two Little Italies at the Head of the Lakes"
Phylis Cancilla Martinelli, "Pioneer Paesani in Globe, Arizona"
Rudolph J. Vecoli, "Italians on Minnesota's Iron Range"
Paul A. Sturgul, "Italians on the Gogebic Iron Range"

Minnesota's Ethnic Language Schools: Potential for the 80s

Ed. Betty Ann Burch; 1983.

ISBN 0-932833-04-7
viii, 79 pp.
Paper $8.00

Proceedings from 1980 IHRC conference on the potential role for ethnic language schools in the United States. Keynote address, "The Americanness of the Ethnic CommunitySchool," by Joshua Fishman, then Distinguished University Professor of Social Sciences, Yeshiva University, and an authority on ethnic language maintenance in the United States.

The Nelson Brothers: Finnish-American Radicals from the Mendocino Coast

By Allan Nelson; eds. Russell and Sylvia Bartley; Mendocino County Historical Society and Mendocino County Museum, 2005.

ISBN: 0-9748934-4-7
xiv + 166 pp., numerous photographs and drawings, 5 appendixes, index
Paper $24.95

The book is "an important and engaging work," according to one of the reviewers, Dr. Alexis Pogorelskin, professor of history at the U of MN-Duluth, who adds that it is an "important contribution to the unique history of Finnish Americans." One of the rare and fascinating things about this story is that both sides of an exchange of letters were available to the author, because his father, Arvid, copied the letters he sent to his brother Enoch in Soviet Karelia and kept the copies along with the replies.The IHRC holds Arvid Nelson's papers, donated by Allan. The editors provide an Introduction and Afterword that help to put this history in context.

Vystahovalecto a Zivot Krajanov vo Svete

Ed. Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky, and Claude Balaz; Matica Slovenska, 1980.

359 pp.+ index, in Slovak
Cloth $22.95

Papers from the first international conference on Slovak emigration and communities abroad, held in Bratislava in 1980.

WOP! A Documentary History of Anti-Italian Discrimination

By Salvatore J. LaGumina; Guernica Editions, Inc., 1999

ISBN 1-55071-047-8
319 pp.
Paper $16.95