Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2016 -

This inordinately resourceful education text, while focused on the trials in the lives of Palestinian high schoolers since 9/11, is alternatively an examination of globality. In the current matrix of questions surrounding emotional/psychological belonging and physical juridical citizenship/non-citizenship, educational anthropologist Abu El-Haj (Rutgers) provides readers with the contours. Immigrant parents from countries in turmoil actively seek to instill in their children a belonging to the ancestral home and its political history and current reality, while they are expected to use opportunities in the US. Living two lives is a quagmire for these young people. Exploring the US as a society with its own national imagery, ongoing empire building, and racism, Abu El-Haj addresses a national educational philosophy that is increasingly unable to accomplish the realities of globality. Though there is an acknowledgment of American voices espousing that this is precisely the problem, there is a retreat from giving them equal significance. One major question is how do the radical citizens actually participate in all aspects of a society that provides a cherished set of opportunities that rely on more than juridical citizenship. A must-read for educators and the general public.Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries.