Reviews of HCTIUS V1

This post will contain reviews or links to reviews of "A History of Conversion to Islam in the United States, Volume 1: White American Muslims Before 1975". I will continue to update this post as more reviews come in.

-Review from Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

Since 9/11, scholars such as Thomas Kidd, Robert Allison, Denise Spellberg, Ussama Makdisi, Michael Oren, Heather Sharkey, and Christine Leigh Heyrman have explored the relationship between Islam and the US. Historian Bowen (Univ. of Denver) shifts directions and examines white American conversions to Islam, explaining how inherited European perceptions of Islam affected early US attitudes. He makes use of such concepts as “deterritorialization”—the globalizing effects of the breaking down of territorial and conceptual borders—and “reterritorialization”—the hardening of territorial boundaries, for context. The author roots much of the growing interest in Islam in the expanding religious landscape of the 19th-century US "occult revival" and the transcendental and theosophical movements, which were more accepting of non-Christian movements. Although nativist groups emerged, Bowen notes that more Americans gradually identified with but not as Muslims. He traces his narrative to 1975 by studying such converts as Alexander Webb and Louis Glick, the influx of Muslim intellectuals and college students in the 1940s, and the post-1965 revision of immigration laws, which allowed more US contact with like-minded emigrants from the Middle East. In summary, Bowen challenges the notion that American conversions to Islam are only recent and shows that they have a longer pedigree than imagined. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.
--M. S. Hill, Liberty University

-Excerpt from review from Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions

Although it is quite easy to get lost in the extensive number of names, esoteric religious groups, and Muslim organizations that Bowen discusses in his work, thus making the work probably too detailed for undergraduate use, this reviewer highly recommends the book for graduate students and professors interested in an under-explored aspect of American religious history. The work is also ideal for any scholar interested in studies on religious conversion.
--Jacob Hicks, Florida State University

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