**There will be a small selection of books for sale at the event, but you are encouraged to buy books in advance and bring a copy for the author to sign. You may purchase them from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble.**

Linda K. Jacobs is a New York-based independent scholar and author. She holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology/Anthropology and spent many years working on archaeological excavations and economic development projects in the Middle East. She is the author of three books—Digging In: An American Archaeologist Uncovers the Real Iran (New York: KalimahPress, 2011), Strangers in the West: The Syrian Colony of New York City, 1880-1900 (New York: KalimahPress, 2015), and Strangers No More: The Syrians in the United States, 1880-1900, a study of the Syrian population of the United States in the nineteenth century that was published by KalimahPress in 2019. She has also written a number of articles and blogposts about the early Syrian immigrant experience (http://kalimahpress.com).

All four of her grandparents were members of the New York Syrian colony. Dr. Jacobs sits on the boards of several Middle Eastern organizations and is committed to promoting Middle Eastern culture and heritage in the United States.

Syrian/Lebanese immigration to the United States began only in 1878, but by 1900, Syrian men and women had settled in every state and territory, from Alabama to Wyoming. First traveling 5,000 miles to reach New York, these wanderers peddled their way to the furthest corners of the country, settling in hundreds of cities and towns. They braved the rigors of the western territories, including Alaska, and moved into towns where no Arab had ever been seen before. There they made new lives for themselves, becoming along the way, Americans.

“Linda Jacobs’s Strangers No More is an encyclopedic tour de force of the history of early Arab Americans across the United States. It is cogent, timely, insightful and full of new information never before published, and will remain a vital touchstone of that history for generations to come. With this new publication Jacobs proves once again that she is a leading scholar of Arab American history.” - Akram F. Khater, Khayrallah Distinguished Professor of Lebanese Diaspora Studies; Director, Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, North Carolina State University, and author of Inventing Home and Embracing the Divine 

RSVP