Engaging ideas, transforming minds
Engaging ideas, transforming minds

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310 pages
6 x 9 inches
May 2004
Print ISBN: 9781551302683

Overview

"The updated edition of this perceptive study could hardly appear at a more auspicious moment, as the latest phase of the tragedy of Haiti is unfolding. It brilliantly illuminates the rich tapestry of Haitian culture and reveals the remarkable resilience of the Haitian people, subjected to centuries of rapacity and violence and brutally punished for revealing the limited definition of freedom adopted by the French and American revolutions, in the author's accurate words. As he relates, they have continued to teach such lessons to this day, frightening the rich and powerful in their own tortured land and at the centers of global rule. It is our great loss if we choose not to understand, and there is no better starting point than this learned and penetrating inquiry."
—  Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Photographs
Preface to New Edition
Introduction

Chapter 1: The Nature of Haiti: Land and Society
The Land, the People, and Natural Resources
Vodou Cosmology: World View at the Crossroads
Women and Society

Chapter 2: The Context of Haitian Development and Underdevelopment
Saint-Domingue: Wealth Amid Poverty
The Haitian Revolution (1791–1806)
Postindependence Crises: Structures, Institutions
Early Foreign Policy: Diplomatic And Trade Relations
Haitian Social Thought and Literature

Chapter 3: Modernization and Dependence: Twentieth-Century Haiti
Caudillism and Modernization
The U.S. Occupation, 1915–1934
The Caco Wars
The Aftermath of the U.S. Occupation: Stability and Turmoil, 1934–1956
Prelude to Dictatorship: The Elections of 1957
Dynastic Dictatorship: The Duvalier Years, 1957–1986

Chapter 4: The Haitian Economy and the National Security State
Applied Economics: The Puerto Rican Model of Development?
The National Security State

Chapter 5: Politics and Government
The Constitution of 1987 and National Institutions
The Military Dictatorship and the Electoral Campaigns of 1987–1988
Peasant Organizations, Structures and Institutions

Chapter 6: Heralding the Bicentennial: Breaks and Continuity
Three Generals and a Lady
The Failed Era: Aristide and the Anatomy of a Coup
On Wings of Eagles: Continuity and Uncertainties

Conclusion
Appendix 1
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index

Reviews

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