Political

American Sheikhs is the story of a great institution-the American University of Beirut (AUB)-and the families who created and fostered it for almost 150 years. Author Brian VanDeMark’s vivid narrative includes not only the colorful history of AUB and many memorable episodes in a family saga, but also larger and more important themes. In the story of the efforts of these two families to build a great school with alternating audacity, arrogance, generosity, paternalism, and vision, the author clearly sees an allegory for the larger history of the United States in the Middle East.