The Limits of Whiteness:
Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race
Sept 2017 | Stanford University Press
Awards
Honorable Mention (Cultural Anthropology & Sociology category), 2018 PROSE Awards
Book Reviews
“Tremendously important for historians, sociologists, legal scholars and anthropologists, The Limits of Whiteness is required reading for those with interests in race, immigration, processes of othering, and diasporas.” —Canadian Journal of Sociology
"Maghbouleh's book illustrates the inadequacy of existing studies of American whiteness." - Literary Review of Canada
"[A] groundbreaking study of Iranian Americans and race... Maghbouleh's work offers a powerful critique of post-racialism... this book should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding how processes of racialization can sometimes lead to a rejection of racial-nationalism in favor of a more capacious notion of identity open to pan-Asian and other 'south-south' affiliations" - Jadaliyya
"In clear and compelling prose, Maghbouleh has written a richly detailed chronicle of young people's shifting experiences of race and racism that takes their voices and actions seriously. Imminently readable with a robust sociological architecture... a conversation starter and insighful, timely analysis of what race means and feels like for brown youth at the limits of whiteness." - Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East & North African Migration Studies
"University of Toronto sociologist Maghbouleh's important book combines keen historical and legal analyses with interviews with over 80 high school and college age Iranian Americans." - Choice, "Recommended"
Advance Praise
“The Limits of Whiteness is cutting-edge scholarship at its best. Beautifully written and insightfully researched, it engages discussions of race and racialization of Iranian Americans with unprecedented depth and rigor. This is essential reading for those who care about the fraught and capacious legacies, and afterlives, of Middle Eastern and American racial projects.”
—Sarah Gualtieri, Associate Professor, University of Southern California; author of Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian Diaspora
“Maghbouleh seamlessly navigates the historical, anthropological, and political, in a work as engaging as it is informative. This trailblazing book should be required reading for anyone interested in race in America, period.”
—Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick: A Memoir and The Last Illusion
“In this brilliantly designed, beautifully written, and persuasively argued book, Maghbouleh demonstrates that Iranian Americans inhabit a complex and contradictory relationship to race. They find themselves living at the limits of whiteness, considered to be not white enough for some purposes but too white for others. Her evidence, ideas, and arguments make significant and lasting contributions to our understanding of whiteness as a social construction. The vivid and poignant portraits of the lives of second-generation Iranian Americans that form the evidentiary base of this brilliant book reveal whiteness to be a fickle and volatile category, an ever shifting entity shaped by political, cultural, linguistic, and religious practices that initially might seem to have little to do with race.”
—George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies & Sociology, UC Santa Barbara; author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness
To Purchase
The book can be ordered directly from retailers like Stanford University Press and Amazon.com, or hometown favorite Powell's City of Books. People have also sent along photographic evidence of the book being sold in brick-and-mortar independent bookstores like Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Bridge Street Books in Georgetown, Washington DC, and Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA.
If you're considering the book for course adoption, please drop me a line! I would love to discuss the possibility of Skypeing into your classroom for a guest lecture or Q&A to support your work with students.
Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race
Sept 2017 | Stanford University Press
Awards
Honorable Mention (Cultural Anthropology & Sociology category), 2018 PROSE Awards
Book Reviews
“Tremendously important for historians, sociologists, legal scholars and anthropologists, The Limits of Whiteness is required reading for those with interests in race, immigration, processes of othering, and diasporas.” —Canadian Journal of Sociology
"Maghbouleh's book illustrates the inadequacy of existing studies of American whiteness." - Literary Review of Canada
"[A] groundbreaking study of Iranian Americans and race... Maghbouleh's work offers a powerful critique of post-racialism... this book should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding how processes of racialization can sometimes lead to a rejection of racial-nationalism in favor of a more capacious notion of identity open to pan-Asian and other 'south-south' affiliations" - Jadaliyya
"In clear and compelling prose, Maghbouleh has written a richly detailed chronicle of young people's shifting experiences of race and racism that takes their voices and actions seriously. Imminently readable with a robust sociological architecture... a conversation starter and insighful, timely analysis of what race means and feels like for brown youth at the limits of whiteness." - Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East & North African Migration Studies
"University of Toronto sociologist Maghbouleh's important book combines keen historical and legal analyses with interviews with over 80 high school and college age Iranian Americans." - Choice, "Recommended"
Advance Praise
“The Limits of Whiteness is cutting-edge scholarship at its best. Beautifully written and insightfully researched, it engages discussions of race and racialization of Iranian Americans with unprecedented depth and rigor. This is essential reading for those who care about the fraught and capacious legacies, and afterlives, of Middle Eastern and American racial projects.”
—Sarah Gualtieri, Associate Professor, University of Southern California; author of Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian Diaspora
“Maghbouleh seamlessly navigates the historical, anthropological, and political, in a work as engaging as it is informative. This trailblazing book should be required reading for anyone interested in race in America, period.”
—Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick: A Memoir and The Last Illusion
“In this brilliantly designed, beautifully written, and persuasively argued book, Maghbouleh demonstrates that Iranian Americans inhabit a complex and contradictory relationship to race. They find themselves living at the limits of whiteness, considered to be not white enough for some purposes but too white for others. Her evidence, ideas, and arguments make significant and lasting contributions to our understanding of whiteness as a social construction. The vivid and poignant portraits of the lives of second-generation Iranian Americans that form the evidentiary base of this brilliant book reveal whiteness to be a fickle and volatile category, an ever shifting entity shaped by political, cultural, linguistic, and religious practices that initially might seem to have little to do with race.”
—George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies & Sociology, UC Santa Barbara; author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness
To Purchase
The book can be ordered directly from retailers like Stanford University Press and Amazon.com, or hometown favorite Powell's City of Books. People have also sent along photographic evidence of the book being sold in brick-and-mortar independent bookstores like Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Bridge Street Books in Georgetown, Washington DC, and Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA.
If you're considering the book for course adoption, please drop me a line! I would love to discuss the possibility of Skypeing into your classroom for a guest lecture or Q&A to support your work with students.
Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA
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2018 PROSE Awards
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