nonreductive materialist framework, pro- vides a theoretical fulcrum point to lever- age secularization theory with greater analytical torque. It pries back the veneer of evolutionary difference between primi- tive and modern societies to suggest that religion persists not as mere ideational survivals, but as robust material practices. While the book offers several entry points to trace a materialist turn in religious studies, this reviewer found that particular node most compelling. Surveying a vast expanse of interdis- ciplinary terrain, More than Belief should find a wide-ranging audience. Vasquez provides accessible and astute summaries of theoretical approaches, while articulat- ing a rigorous theory of material religion and offering a coherent methodology for the academic study of its practice. It is well suited for the graduate school class- room and should prove an invaluable resource for sociologists of religion. Chad E. Seales University of Texas at Austin doi:10.1093/socrel/srr061 Advance Access Publication 3 November 2011 Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, by LORI PEEK. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2011, 214 pp.; $26.95 USD ( paper). In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, scholars and journalists alike wrote exten- sively of how community solidarity bloss- omed as Americans struggled to recover from collective trauma experienced across the nation. Unfortunately, amid the stories of neighbors feeding and comfort- ing one another, the painful reality of post-9/11 backlash against Muslim Americans was often erased by discursive emphases on the goodwill shared among friends, family, and strangers. Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11 presents Lori Peek’s research on how Muslim Americans have been actively excluded from the postdisaster “altruistic community” of the post-9/11 United States. Peek’s book is a well- researched, thoughtful examination of how processes of postdisaster backlash heighten social boundaries, despite both popular and scholarly assumptions of sol- idarity after disaster. Peek considers an array of difficulties Muslim Americans faced after the 9/11 attacks, including har- assment, threats, physical violence, and job, educational and housing discrimina- tion. The book is organized on an analytic trajectory in which Peek seeks to “describe the range of discrimination [Muslim Americans] experienced, to explain the personal and collective impacts of the backlash, and to shed light on the ways in which Muslims adapted in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks” (1). Behind the Backlash culminates with Peek’s proposal of six key factors illuminating minority group vulnerability to post disaster backlash. Peek embarked on this work by start- ing with intensive ethnography in New York City less than three weeks after the attacks, and later continued data col- lection in Colorado. Over two years, the author completed focus groups and inter- views with 140 Muslim American men and women. These stories form the core of Peek’s nuanced analysis of the many ways in which her respondents were subtly—and not so subtly—rebuked by other Americans simply on the basis of their perceived status as “dangerous and threatening outsiders” (169). One critique of Peek’s work is that she does not consistently differentiate analytically between the New York City and Colorado samples. The NYC inter- views were conducted within weeks of 9/ 11, offering insight into how these respondents were experiencing backlash in what was possibly the most volatile space in which to be visibly Muslim post-9/11. In contrast, Peek began the Colorado interviews a few months later. It BOOK REVIEWS 487 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article/72/4/487/1615304 by KIM Hohenheim user on 22 April 2022