Welcome to Books of the Month, a book club curated monthly with works from authors within the College of Letters & Science at UC Davis. This April, we honor Arab American Heritage Month with selections highlighting activist history within Arab American communities and abroad, as well as multiple cultural histories.

In a new book, historian Stacy Fahrenthold unravels the history of Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian immigrants’ activism in the global textile industry and labor strikes. Her book reveals how women garment workers, child laborers and union activists struggled against white and even Arab American bosses, as well as why their impact has gone ignored.