Haiti

A passionate and insightful account by a leading historian of Haiti that traces the sources of the country s devastating present back to its turbulent and traumatic historyEven before the 2010 earthquake destroyed much of the country, Haiti was known as a benighted place of poverty and corruption Maligned and misunderstood, the nation has long been blamed by many for its own wretchedness But as acclaimed historian Laurent Dubois makes clear, Haiti s troubled present can only be understood by examining its complex past The country s difficulties are inextricably rooted in its founding revolution the only successful slave revolt in the history of the world the hostility that this rebellion generated among the colonial powers surrounding the island nation and the intense struggle within Haiti itself to define its newfound freedom and realize its promise.Dubois vividly depicts the isolation and impoverishment that followed the 1804 uprising He details how the crushing indemnity imposed by the former French rulers initiated a devastating cycle of debt, while frequent interventions by the United States including a twenty year military occupation further undermined Haiti s independence At the same time, Dubois shows, the internal debates about what Haiti should do with its hard won liberty alienated the nation s leaders from the broader population, setting the stage for enduring political conflict Yet as Dubois demonstrates, the Haitian people have never given up on their struggle for true democracy, creating a powerful culture insistent on autonomy and equality for all.Revealing what lies behind the familiar moniker of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, this indispensable book illuminates the foundations on which a new Haiti might yet emerge. Best Read eBook Haiti By Laurent Dubois – kino-fada.fr Imagine my relief when I was finally able to find a contemporary history book about Haiti All I knew before was The Black Jacobins , and his story ends with Dessalines The main historical question of this book is of the Haitian peoples autonomy, and how much or how little they have had through exceedingly difficult circumstances This starts with the country s traumatic birth from a slave rebellion, then through long periods of diplomatic isolation, authoritarian rule, and foreign interventi Imagine my relief when I was finally able to find a contemporary history book about Haiti All I knew before was The Black Jacobins , and his story ends with Dessalines The main historical question of this book is of the Haitian peoples autonomy, and how much or how little they have had through exceedingly difficult circumstances This starts with the country s traumatic birth from a slave rebellion, then through long periods of diplomatic isolation, authoritarian rule, and foreign intervention I had vaguely heard of an American intervention in the early 20th century, but had no idea of its length, or of its combination of ineffective governance and general ruthlessness pe...Indispensable for anyone seriously interested in Haiti, but also an engrossing Laurent Dubois is a wonderful storyteller, bringing to life characters I knew little about, including Antenor Firmin, and humanizing figures who had become caricatures, like Henri Christophe In Dubois telling, Haiti has been a site of constant struggle he doesn t answer whether and how its ends might be achieved Dubois also weaves in stories about people who have told stories about Haiti he s ever alert to the w Indispensable for anyone seriously interested in Haiti, but also an engrossing Laurent Dubois is a wonderful storyteller, bringing to life characters I knew little about, including Antenor Firmin, and humanizing figures who had become caricatures, like Henri Christo...I wanted to go to Haiti, one of the places that I thought of visiting during my gap year before going up to university At school I read Graham Greene s novel The Comedians, set in the Haiti of Papa Doc Duvalier, horrible and fascinating at one and the same time Add to that my discoveries about Vodou and my subsequent reading into Haiti s past then the magnetism became compelling But I was warned against going it was too dangerous, the place was too unsettled, there were too many risks I wen I wanted to go to Haiti, one of the places that I thought of visiting during my gap year before going up to university At school I read Graham Greene s novel The Comedians, set in the Haiti of Papa Doc Duvalier, horrible and fascinating at one and the same time Add to that my discoveries about Vodou and my subsequent reading into Haiti s past then the magnetism became compelling But I was warned against going it was too dangerous, the p...This book will stay with me for a long time.I have read a number of histories of the Haitian Revolution including Avengers of the New World by this same author but I was less familiar withmodern Haitian history and this book provided valuable analysis of the past 200 years of Haitian history Dubois discusses Haitian intellectuals and writers as well as th...Understanding the twists, turns, and influences of the history of any people is fundamental to understanding their current position, status, or culture.Haiti is a deeply stigmatized country repeatedly influenced time and time again by malicious foreign powers yes, the US and authoritative domestic elite regimes In contrast to previous critiques of the book, I think that Dubois is offering the idea that Haiti has been influenced by negative powers, that much is obvious But it is the resilienc Understanding the twists, turns, and influences of the history of a...In this book, Laurent Dubois provides a fluid, effective, and concise history of Haiti s complex past Prior to reading the book, I had knowledge of Haiti roughly equivalent to the average person the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the only country to successfully stem from a slave revolt, and a country with a devastating history of poverty and corruption However, Dubois s work helped me to gather a muchfluent understanding of Haiti s history The interplay of political, econo In this book, Laurent Dubois provides a fluid, effective, and concise history of Haiti s complex past Prior to reading the book, I had knowledge of Haiti roughly equivalent to the average person the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the only country to successfully stem from a slave revolt, and a country with a devastating history of poverty and corruption However, Dubois s work helped me to gather a muchfluent understanding of Haiti s history The interplay of political, economic, domestic and international issues that has led to Haiti s long standing problems is tremendousl...This book was an excellent introduction to Haitian history for me The writing is clear and engaging, and while Dubois focuses on political history, he also incorporates a lot of social history into his writing for a fairly comprehensive perspective overall, although I would have liked it to be a bit less male centric Dubois writing historical narrative comes across as a well balanced one, discussing his subjects in a nuanced manner Dubois goes into a fair amount of depth from Haitian indepen This book was an excellen...I think anyone interested in America Foreign Policy as it relates to the Caribbean should read this work.The section on American occupation in the early 20th Century is particularly eye opening.This is primarily a work on the history of Haiti but the role of the U.S in that histor...Excellent and fairly detailed review of Haiti s history So much that I didn t know, and so many issues challenging it its historical birth out of a slave rebellion, its own legacy of racism, the plantation system, voodou and Catholicism Can democracy ever thrive in Haiti

• English
• 19 March 2018
Laurent Dubois
• Hardcover
• 448 pages
• 0805093354
• Laurent Dubois
• Haiti