Strangers No More: Syrians in the United States, 1880–1900. By Linda K. Jacobs. New York: Kalimah Press, 2019. Pp. xiii, 455, with illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $30.00 (paperback). ISBN: 9780983539261.
In 2015, New York-based scholar Dr. Linda K. Jacobs published her highly original study on early Syrian immigrants to New York City, Strangers in the West. Her newest publication, Strangers No More, continues the saga by following the lives of Syrians who settled in the rest of the United States during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when economic pressures forced many who lived in Greater Syria, particularly modern-day Lebanon, to find opportunities elsewhere.
For primary sources, Jacobs relies on census data provided by the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University, as well as city directories, vital records, and newspaper articles. She carefully explains problems with the data and gaps in the records, as well as her methods for working with these issues. For example, in reconciling the lower population figures from the census data and the much higher estimates provided by religious representatives in many states, Jacobs notes, among other considerations, that a significant number of Syrians worked as peddlers and may not have been present when the census data was collected, and surmises that the actual figure is likely to be somewhere between the two.
The book is arranged alphabetically by state; each chapter begins with the census data then addresses urban geography, living conditions, types of employment, noteworthy events, religious composition, and intellectual life. Only Nevada is not represented since Jacobs was unable to find any data on Syrians in that state. This format makes the book highly useful as a reference work, while an extensive index allows the reader to trace the path of specific individuals as they migrated around the country. Jacobs is fully aware of the difficulties involved with names that were romanized in a variety of different ways, both by authorities and the immigrants themselves, and draws reasonable surmises where there is any confusion or problem with a name.
One small criticism is the long URLs referenced in the footnotes, which should have been supplemented with shorter versions that humans can easily type in.
Strangers No More is a groundbreaking study that will be essential for researchers of both Arab and general immigration and settlement patterns in the United States in the late nineteenth century. The book is also an invaluable tool for anyone conducting Arab-American genealogical research. As such, I highly recommend this book for any academic or public library where these types of research are likely to be conducted.
Denise Soufi
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill