Haiti

October 24, 2011
Dubois (A Colony of Citizens) chronicles the “devastating set of authoritarian political habits” that have hamstrung the impoverished nation since its 1804 creation through the only successful slave revolt in modern history. Throughout its struggle to take its place in the family of nations, the obstacles of giant debts imposed from without and political instability generated from within have created a ruling class that “realized they couldn’t rebuild the plantations or stop the country’s majority from pushing for land and autonomy. What they could do, however, was channel and contain that push, surround and stifle it.” For more than a hundred years after its independence, Haiti’s political struggles, from presidential intrigues to outright revolution ushered in more than a dozen leaders—and nearly as many constitutions—creating a legacy of instability that left Haiti vulnerable to a 19-year occupation by U.S. Marines. Decades of absolute dictatorship by “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his feckless, brutal son, “Baby Doc” Duvalier left a looted, indebted nation whose civil institutions “had been largely dismantled or absorbed by the state.” Dubois does an admirable job of condensing turbulent political history into a narrative. He places deep and abiding faith in the resilience of Haiti’s disempowered populace to survive the earthquake, but catalogues a bitter litany of reasons why the descendants of a successful revolution have not achieved anything close to economically successful, stable, democratic independence.

November 1, 2011
A vigorous retelling of Haiti's history intended to revive the promise of the world's first black-led republic. This is not a story of the decline of a small nation, but an inspiring account of the struggle against adversity for freedom and independence. Dubois (History and French Studies/Duke Univ.; Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France, 2010, etc.) narrates the story of Toussaint Louverture's leadership of the slave population of France's most profitable colony to independence in 1791, emancipation in 1793 and recognition by the government in 1794. The author also examines how Napoleon reversed independence and sent an army that was crushed in 1804 by Louverture and his collaborators and successors; how the Congress of Vienna secretly gave France the right to invade the country; and how Haiti was excluded from the Monroe Doctrine. Haiti was free, but a free country established by former black slaves--they had transgressed an order based not only on plantation slavery but also racism. Invasion, blockade and isolation were used to deny Haitians their place among the free nations of the world; the United States did not recognize the country until Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860. Haiti endured until the U.S. Marines were sent to steal the country's gold and occupy the island in 1915. Franklin Roosevelt took credit for rewriting the constitution, and corporate-owned plantation-based production was reintroduced to replace the family-based system of land tenure. As Dubois writes, "the occupation propelled Haiti's political system backward by a century," and the country has not been permitted to recover to the present. A profound demonstration of what needs to be recognized, reconciled and forgiven if current crises are to be overcome.

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November 1, 2010

The Caribbean figures largely in April nonfiction (see also Jim Rasenberger's The Brilliant Disaster and Alex von Tunzelmann's Red Heat). Duke University French and history professor Dubois, who's already won kudos for his work on Haiti in Avengers of the New World, here aims for a comprehensive history that grounds the country's troubles in international revulsion at its having managed the world's first and only successful slave revolt. Especially relevant postearthquake.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
A political history of Haiti, this narrative resumes where the author's Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004) left off, in 1804, with the establishment of independence from France. Chronicling Haiti's rulers, Dubois' account implicitly searches out explanations for the country's chronic poverty, which he declares has nothing to do with any inherent shortcoming of the Haitian people. No doubt true, but the contributing factor to the historical problem is nearly two centuries of strong-arm presidents, reaching a nadir in the malignant Duvalier dictatorship. Not dismissing one-man-rule's deleterious economic effects, Dubois ascribes a negative influence to repeated intrusions by foreign powers into Haitian affairs. An indemnity that France imposed in 1825 is one example, while a more lineal connection to current conditions is the U.S. occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934; with foreign sway over its finances, Haitian leaders often found their scope of action restricted, echoed in the present by reliance on foreign aid. Nevertheless, Dubois concludes optimistically about a better, democratic Haitian future in this well-informed and -written work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)