Sacred Interests

“Delving into a relatively little-known field, Karine V. Walther recovers an important period of the United States' history and its relations with the Islamic world. Sacred Interests is a very important book.” — Julian Go, Boston University

“An excellent, detailed and well-constructed introduction to an important subject.” — Times Literary Supplement

“[A] superb book. . . . Provides a deeper understanding of U.S. approaches to the Islamic world. Highly recommended.” — CHOICE

“Its transnational breadth, refined scope, and authorial care make Sacred Interests essential reading for scholars and students of race, religion, and empire.” — Journal of American History

“A powerful book about the ways in which many nineteenth-century Americans sought to convert and reform, colonize and control Muslims throughout the world.” — Diplomatic History

“Walther’s excellent new study is the first overview of American relations with the Islamic World in the years between the Barbary Wars and world War II.” — Review of Middle East Studies

“An important study that deserves to be widely read. . . . Walther has uncovered the ideological and rhetorical foundations of the recrudescent Islamophobia today.” — American Historical Review

“Illuminates a series of transnational engagements which helped shape U.S. foreign policy . . . and which reveal the roots of a persistent racialization of Islam in America today.” — Religion in American History

“A well-documented investigation of relations between the United States and the Islamic world during the nineteenth century.” — Journal of American Culture

“Scholars are now equipped with a fuller picture of America’s relationship with the broader Islamic world.” — Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamic World