Product Description
The earthquake has unleashed a desperation I recognize from my long education in Haiti as the desperation of extreme poverty. A few blocks away, I heard an elderly Haitian arguing with an officer of the 82nd over a piece of rope or bungee cord the man needed to tie up a bundle of stuff. The man had no teeth and gray sprouts of hair and he held the cord in his hand and was trying to get back to his bundle. But the officer stopped him. The man spoke no English, the officer no Creole—but the officer knew that all scavenging had to stop now (as he said repeatedly), because the bulldozers were coming in and the Army did not want to bulldoze any scavengers. Finally though, the officer—rolling his eyes and shaking his head slightly, and looking up to the heavens in a combined gesture of impatience and resignation not uncommon among people new to Haiti—let the old man leave with his piece of rope."

—From the new introduction, "After the Earthquake ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very readable, but heavily opinionated
This is a very readable and mostly enjoyable book about relatively recent events in Haiti's tumultuous history.It offers an exciting, yet at times disjointed, view of Aristide's political birth in the aftermath of Duvalier's fall.The attack on Christian missions was unwelcomed, vitriolic and unnecessary.The diatribe cast a shadow for me over the text to follow.The author clearly is enamored by Voudou and a rather coarse vignette at the tail end of the book seems to demonstrate her fascination.She frequently rants against the disinformation campaign seemingly attempting to discredit Aristide.She seems to think she is "the keeper of the truth," yet also admits to the dizzying confusion that is Haitian politics.Her conviction that Aristide is the savior of Haiti takes a historical hit when he reveals his avaricious, vindictive and murderous true character in later years.Who was fed "disinformation?!!"All that being said, this is largely quite readable and draws from some very important literary sources in Haiti's history.I would recommend preceding or following it with Philippe Girard's "Paradise Lost" to provide for balance. ... Read more

Product Description
"A good history of a sordid intervention that submitted a people to autocratic rule and did little for economic development." --The New York Times"From Schmidt we get the full details . . . of the brutal racist practices inflicted on the Haitians for nearly all of the nineteen-year American presence in the country." --American Historical Review"The only thoroughgoing study of one of the more discreditable American interventions overseas." --Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Should become the standard work on the subject. . . .required reading for specialists in Caribbean studies and U.S.-Latin American relations." --ChoiceHans Schmidt taught form many years at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He now teaches at the University of Hong Kong. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Marines in Haiti
Hans Schmidt was one of the first people to write on this topic with sources that the Navy and Marine Corps declassified within 15 years of its writing. Schmidt approached this book much as a scholar offering an even handed approach that helps the readers understand why the Americans were there in the first place.The book exposes the good and bad that the Americans did there, from the modernizing the roads (admittedly this was as much for military purposes as civilian) to the racist attitude that most of the Marines on Haiti had (remember the Marine Corps was an all white organization at the time).He does a good job explaining the background of the intervention and how the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine to keep the Europeans out. Though this book is rather dry at times, it is written well and Schmidt gets his point across. Overall I would say that this is a great book for someone looking for scholarly work on the subject, but other than that I think that most average readers would find it dry and boring.

"Fair & balanced."
This is a fair & balanced review of a very interesting historical period. It certainly reads like a text book but the material covered keeps it interesting.It lacks any coverage of Charlemagne Peralte and the caco resistance which would seem to be an important chapter during the occupation. Although the results of the occupation were a disappointment I get the feeling that it was not an intentionally evil enterprise as other authors conclude.I have not come across a comparable book covering the occupation and thus would recommend this without reservation to interested readers.

Brief New York Times review of the book
New York Times review of the book Sep 26, 1971:

Pedestrian (lacking wit or imagination) but caustic (harsh or corrosive in tone) and thorough history of the US intervention in Haiti.Prevailing imperialistic and racist attitudes in America, coupled with a fatuous (unconsciously foolish) faith in technological progress, accounted for the involvement.The National City Bank had investments in Haiti, but American policy according to the Hans Schmidt, was more the result of fears that European countries, specifically France and Germany, had their eyes on the Caribbean.This is a good history of a sordid intervention that submitted a people to autocratic military rule and did little for economic development.Parallels with our recent Vietnam venture are not out of place. ... Read more

Product Description
In the euphoria that followed the departure of Haiti's hated dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier, most Haitian and foreign analysts treated the regimes of the two Duvaliers, father and son, as a historical nightmare created by the malevolent minds of the leaders and their supporters. Yet the crisis, economic and political, that faces this small Caribbean nation did not begin with the dictatorship, and is far from being solved, despite its departure from the scene. In this fascinating study, Haitian-born Michel-Rolph Trouillot examines the mechanisms through which the Duvaliers ruthlessly won and then held onto power for twenty-nine years.Trouillot's theoretical discussion focuses on the contradictory nature of the peripheral state, analyzing its relative autonomy as a manifestation of the growing disjuncture between state and nation. He discusses in detail two key characteristics of such regimes: the need for a rhetoric of "national unity" coupled with unbridled violence. At the same time, he traces the current crisis from its roots in the nineteenth-century marginalization of the peasantry through the U.S. occupation from 1915 to 1934 and into the present. He ends with a discussion of the post-Duvalier period, which, far from seeing the restoration of civilian-led democracy, has been a period of increasing violence and economic decline. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Vociferous bias, but revealing about Haitian Society
Readers of this book should know that it marked by a violent antipathy towards the "Mulatto" caste of Haiti. The role of the US military in the 20th century history of Haiti is poorly known in the USA, of course, and it is overwhelmingly destructive; but Trouillot, while eager to vilify Americans in his narration, sheds no light on the details.So be advised that when he describes events in ways that seem willfully malicious, there is understandable grounds for resentment which he never explains adequately.

The other aspect of this book I found disturbing is his vilification of the "mulatre" (Mulatto) caste in Haiti, which we learn was the reviled "other" of the Noirist movement of post-WW2 Haiti.The mulatres are an insular group whom Trouillot regards as arrogant, aristocratic, commerce-minded, born to privilege, and ultimately anti-Haitian--or rather, hostile to his own dream of a hyper-regimented, Communist Haiti.Since the Duvaliers were inheritors of the Noirist movement against rule by mulatres, there is a tone in this book reminiscent of apologists for the Interhamawe/"Hutu Power" movement in Rwanda.

Trouillot is therefore vehemently defending the Haitians who favored Noirism; but he absolutely does not defend the Duvaliers, who co-opted the Noirist slogans and imposed a ferocious totalitarian kleptocracy.His analysis of how their regime flourished, and the damage it did, is actually quite excellent, although he could have done a much better job explaining exactly what role foreign powers really did have in Haiti and the actual divisions that were left BY the Duvaliers.

This book can be recommended for its superb description of life under totalitarian rule, of social relations in Haiti, and the breadth of Haitian history since Toissant l'Ouverture's death. It is also a good introduction to attitudes among camps of intelligentsia, and of course Mr.Trouillot is entitled to wish that Haiti had become a regimented socialist society at independence.But Trouillot's resentment against class/caste enemies must be mentioned and it damages what is otherwise a very useful book. ... Read more

Product Description
The Haitian Creole Language is the first book dealing with the central role of Creole in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora, especially in the United States. Dispelling myths about Creole, with discussions of Haitian and Haitian Creole history, it provides a foundation for educators, service providers, policy makers, social scientists, and language and literature scholars to understand Creole in its historical, social, political, educational, and economic developmental contexts. ... Read more

Product Description
The election of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1990, his American-supported restoration to office in 1994, and the peaceful election in 1995 of President Rene Preval were harbingers of a radically new and promising era in Haitian political and economic life. With a five-year presidency, Preval now has the opportunity to reconstruct and remold the Haitian state, to raise Haitian living standards, and to create a new political culture of democracy and tolerance. The future of his country and the success of Haiti's last best chance to break its chains of poverty, desperation, and deprivation depend on the choices that he and his colleagues make in the months ahead. This book provides an agenda for Preval and his successors, one that examines Haiti's political culture - its historical legacy and what that means for future reconstruction - and many of its most critical political, economic, and social challenges. ... Read more

Product Description
This new perspective on Haitian history features 30 distinguished essays linked to the magnificent paintings by renowned painter Ulrick Jean-Pierre, formerly of New Orleans, LA, that accompany and illustrate this work.Revolutionary Freedoms combines scholarship, experience, and inspiration to more fully reveal the complex history of the island of Hispaniola, as well as its influence in the world. Well-referenced essays cover pre-Columbian and colonial history; critical events and people of the Haitian Revolution; U.S.–Haitian history and links, particularly the special relationship with Louisiana; Haitian connections to South America; the history of Haitian painting; and relations with the neighboring Dominican Republic. The work also features an interview with the artist and an unprecedented section on women in the nation’s history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Transition from Authoritarianism to People Power, ADifficult Process
Observers of Haiti's political, social and economic development will be brought to reality by Dr. Fatton's work.

"The process of democratization that has marked the modern history of Haiti.... suggest that the transition from authoritarianism to populism was a function of the ascendancy of the civil society and, in particular, popular civil society," says Fatton (pp. 1-2).

He argues that the classical model adopted for the democratization of Haiti has many inherent weaknesses.

While it may have removed military authoritarianism, it has retained the institutionalized structures of dictatorship, legacies of the State, which are deeply entrenched in the society.

Consequently, the Country today, has an unconsolidated, dysfunctional democracy which is characterized by brutality, and the treachery of the bourgeoisie who monopolizes state power and wealth.

This is what Fatton deems to be a "Predatory democracy."

Dr. Fatton is of Haitian ancestry or Haitian by birth.He appears to write not only for the Haitian people but also as one of them.

He is a brilliant intellectual and scholar, not a revolutionary like "Old"Toussaint, Dessalines or Regaud, the lesser.

However, his predictive skills as a political scientist are brilliant.

I do not share all of Dr. Fatton's views on Aristide, bearing in mind the historical difficulties facing that Country and the obvious geo-political problems of that region.

The work is fairly easy to read. I highly recommend it to students and general readers.

See also:

Roots of Haitian Despotism

In-Dependence from Bondage: Claude McKay and Michael Manley: Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

A well researched look at modern politics in Haiti
This book presents a very thorough explanation of the political situation in Haiti since the fall of the Duvaliers. Because it was published in 2002 it obviously does not discuss the most recent events in Haiti, but the book is a very useful tool in understanding what is going on in that country now. The author actually predicted the events of Jan-Feb 2004 as a possibility of what could happen in that country. I give it a 4-star rating because the language is somewhat dense; the book is not for the casual reader. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Crucial to understanding the economic and political crisis in Haiti!
For activists interested in learning more about the recent U.S. military intervention in Haiti which resulted in massive human rights violations and the kidnapping of left-wing president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, this brief anthology of essays and Democracy Now! interviews is an excellent introduction. As the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti, a former French colony and current victim of World Bank/IMF structural adjustment programs, has suffered years of U.S. sponsored dictatorships and paramilitary violence. As a former Catholic priest who preached liberation theology, Aristide fought to improve the lives of Haiti's enormous underclass who for centuries have endured horrific levels of poverty, illness, political repression, illiteracy, and environmental destruction. For this transgression, Aristide, like Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and Salvador Allende in Chile, was seen as a threat to mulitnational corporate interests and overthrown. As the global justice movement maintains its focus on Venezuela, Bolivia, Chiapas and the Middle East, it's important that we also not forget the situation in Haiti. Here, in the United States, we must also not ignore the plight of Haitian refugees who face criminalization and/or deportation as a result of racist immigration policies and who, like gay and bisexual men, have been scapegoated for the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Despite the poor reviews other people have posted on this website, I found this book to be a very educational and thought-provoking tool to help us better defend the poorest and most oppressed members of human society.

Misleading title...
This relatively short book is titled incorrectly.The title is derived from a statement from Ambassador James Dobbins talk on NPR, but it does not relate the actual content of this book.Also, to say the authors of this book are Noam Chomsky, Paul Farmer, and Amy Goodman, is misleading.Noam Chomsky has a short introduction (9 pages), which is not really all that informative.Paul Farmer's portion was a bit more interesting.Paul Farmer has many years experience living and working with the Haitian people and has written more in depth analysis of Haiti and the occurence of oppresion of third world countries in his books The Uses of Haiti (1994) and Pathologies of Power (2005).
The majority of this book is made up of transcripts from Democracy Now! radio and television broadcasts, and while a good introduction to the situation as it occurred in 2004, it does not adress any thing about steps to remediate the years of US and French backed coups.It does not explain the statements made by either Aristide and his supporters or the claims made by US officials - such as claims of corruption, etc.
The coverage by average US media organizations of this entire event was rather poor, much like the current coverage of the elections taking place currently in Haiti.

Badly written propaganda.
This is without a doubt the worst written account of the current Haitian political situation I have read to date, full of innuendo and unsupported opinions.If I wanted to read a political paphlet I would have gone to a rally.
The one redeeming feature of this pamphlet is the bodyguards account of what exactly happened in the hours prior prior to Aristide's force out, and the role of the Steele foundation.
If you want decent haitian history book look at "Written in Blood"and do not waste your money on this.

Title doesn't really reflect material.
Although this book offered some interesting transcripts, I was interested in reading through a comprehensive set of issues matched with potential solutions (since that was what the title implied to me).

A cloudedassessment
I"m a big fan of Amy Goodman's work as a writer & a journalist but this book falls short. Perhaps Goodman sees Haiti through the lens of East Timor where she spent considerable time in the Nineties. But Haiti isn't as black & white a situation. There are many right & left wing factions with actors frequently changing sides. She also does not question Aristide's claim that he was kidnapped by the US govt. See Paul Farmer's The Uses of Haiti for a better intro to Haiti. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A great book!
Fick's book reveals unknown aspects of the haitian revolution: the fundamental role of the masses without witch the revolution would not have taken place. This book is for anyone who is trying to understand the haitian revolution from the people's point of view. It is the equivalent of Zen's People's history of the U.S.

A Masterpiece!
This book is not only a great companion to CLR James' classic, The Black Jacobins, it also initiates a deeper understanding of the forces and factors that were at the root of the revolution. Whereas James' work tends to mythesize leaders, particularly Toussaint, Fick's work is more likely to detail specific battles and events with information on multiple actors. The only trouble is that Fick's book lacks some of the moral indignation that James had as well as his interest in connecting the Haitian Revolution to the political context of modern times. This makes the book more "scholarly" but less compelling. This is a small drawback, however, for those already impassioned about the subject.

A new most important aspect of Fick's book is her emphasis and redefinition of the role of the maroons (escaped slaves). Whereas many times the maroons are portrayed as only peripheral actors or precedents to the revolution, Fick's work shows that the community of escaped slave, a very broad category, was one of the main forces at work in the revolution.

This book is a must for understanding maroonage, the Haitian Revolution, and a historical investigative method that is liberating!

Revising A Classic {4 1/2 stars}
How to follow in the footsteps of a great historian? One answer is found in this important successor to CLR James's "Black Jacobins." Fick effectively honors James's legacy by expanding the scope of inquiry to encompass the "self-activity" of historical actors at all levels of Haitian society. Where "Black Jacobins" stressed the key role of revolutionary leaders, Fick documents longstanding patterns of everyday resistance and marronage from which the 1791 revolution drew great strength. Her work restores popular agency to the forefront of Haiti's epic history---and James's contribution remains secure, not least due to superior literary merit. ... Read more

Product Description

Haiti's long and turbulent history is documented in this comprehensive reference volume, ideal for high school students, undergrads, and general readers. Discovered by Christopher Columbus on his journey across the Atlantic in 1492, Haiti has had a tumultuous past at best. Epidemics, revolutions, slavery, and poverty have plagued this small Latin American country for centuries, and even today its unstable government has prevented Haiti from becoming a popular Caribbean tourist destination. This volume of the Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations series explores Haiti's bloodied past, beginning with Spanish, French, Dutch, and British attempts at colonization up until today's coups and political uprisings. The History of Haiti is the perfect addition to any high school, public, or undergraduate library.

Customer Reviews (2)

Horrible editing ruins book
Everyone makes mistakes, and I know because I am an author myself.However, when one sees a pattern that should have been noticed by any good editor, then one wonders whether a publisher cares more about having something fast than having something right. This is the case with this book, which covers a sorely needed area (i.e., a brief survey of Haitian history). Some examples:

p. 65: "For instance, during 1959-1910, nine Haitian presidents succeeded each other..."

p. 73: "The Artibonite Valley, where Verrettes is located, reaches to a height between 54.68 yards and 109.36 yards and measures 2,936.60 miles."Yet, the author tells us that the Artibonite river is only 200 miles in length!!!

p. 159: "With so many Haitians in Brooklyn, New York, Eugene Matheiu, the first native of Haiti, was elected to the New York City Council in April 2007."

Surely, Mathieu is not THE FIRST NATIVE OF HAITI.But that is just what is suggested by placing such a completeappositional adjectival phrase in between commas. Rather the author must mean that "in April2007, Eugene Mathieu became the first native of Haiti to be elected to the New York City Council."

I could continue, but these numerous editorial problems damaged the credibility of the information, and that is a shame. It could have been a great little book.

Since the book is short, there is even less excuse for this lack of thorough editing. The series editors are as much at fault as is the author.

Interesting, yet disappointing
The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations is a brilliant idea giving non-historians interested in modern politics an overview of the most recent happenings in many nations.The History of Haiti is written according to the standard format of the series and contains much that is well researched and interesting.The main problem is that the book cries out for some serious editing.One should not expect Michener type writing by junior professors but this books reads in many parts like a very rough draft, not a finished book.There are numerous grammatical errors, peculiar word order, statistics that does not make any sense, unnecessary repetitions and time line organizations within chapters that jump around in a disconcerting manner. ... Read more

Product Description
While much has been written about the antebellum African American interest in emigration to Africa, the equally significant interest in Haitian emigration has been largely overlooked. Although free blacks spurned attempts by the American Colonization Society to "return" them to Africa, during the 1820s, and again during the 1850s and early 1860s, as conditions for African Americans became ever more precarious, thousands of blacks left the U.S. for Haiti searching for civic freedom and economic opportunity in the world's first independent black republic. Such prospects caught the attention of not only the African American leadership but of the black populace as well. In discussing the growing interest in Haitian emigration, Dixon provides ongoing discussions concerning black nationalism as an ideology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best Book on the Topic
Chris Dixon has written the best scholarly book yet regarding the U.S. "Civil War" emigration to Haiti. It is not only exhaustive, but deeply analytical. His purpose was to demonstrate how this emigration and the ideas that spurred it reveal to us now the different intellectual and social dynamics of African American nationalisms. A book of serious scholarship, the main concern is African American (U.S. blacks) rather than Haiti. Yet, this book is a "must" for all interested in nineteenth century nationalisms, African American, and Haitian History. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Haïti," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Haïti in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Haïti when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Haïti, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
This interdisciplinary study analyzes the causes of what the editors call "Haiti's abysmal underdevelopment." Includes contributions from 25 leading authorities on Haiti. ... Read more

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Modernity Disavowed is a pathbreaking study of the cultural, political, and philosophical significance of the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). Revealing how the radical antislavery politics of this seminal event have been suppressed and ignored in historical and cultural records over the past two hundred years, Sibylle Fischer contends that revolutionary antislavery and its subsequent disavowal are central to the formation and understanding of Western modernity. She develops a powerful argument that the denial of revolutionary antislavery eventually became a crucial ingredient in a range of hegemonic thought, including Creole nationalism in the Caribbean and G. W. F. Hegel’s master-slave dialectic.

Fischer draws on history, literary scholarship, political theory, philosophy, and psychoanalytic theory to examine a range of material, including Haitian political and legal documents and nineteenth-century Cuban and Dominican literature and art. She demonstrates that at a time when racial taxonomies were beginning to mutate into scientific racism and racist biology, the Haitian revolutionaries recognized the question of race as political. Yet, as the cultural records of neighboring Cuba and the Dominican Republic show, the story of the Haitian Revolution has been told as one outside politics and beyond human language, as a tale of barbarism and unspeakable violence. From the time of the revolution onward, the story has been confined to the margins of history: to rumors, oral histories, and confidential letters. Fischer maintains that without accounting for revolutionary antislavery and its subsequent disavowal, Western modernity—including its hierarchy of values, depoliticization of social goals having to do with racial differences, and privileging of claims of national sovereignty—cannot be fully understood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Revisionist history done with stong elemts of psychology..
I must say that this book is a very good read. It's one of those book that captivate me mostly because it has another view than most on the subject of colonialism.This doesn't mean that it is an unbiased review. The Cuban section was done very good. That section was as unbiased as a book can get(pretty hard as most people interpret things differently. On the Dominican and Haitian section, you start to notice how differently those countries are treated. He depicts Dominicans as ignorant racists almost exclusively(as far as I can remember all mention of them is as self-hating racists), while Haitians are depicted as liberators, modernizers, an overall benign people that were victims of smeared. He paints this tolerant picture that Haiti was a civilized country and downplays the fact that the whites of the colony were literally wiped out(either massacred or fled). This book fails to mention the last Haitian incursion on Dominican soil by 'Emperor' Faustin the first (following the steps of 'Emperor' Dessalines, the country's first statesman). You cannot get the full reason why anti-haitianismo was/is so widespread without reading from original sources. From independence from Haiti to the reverting back to a colony, all of Haiti's statesmen save for one tried to reconquer the Dominicans, in the process committing horrible war crimes. In particular, Faustin the first was the key needed (as his long reign was dedicated to torment the Hispanics). After that monster, there was a mulatto (who like Boyer, was much less a savage than the others) that tried to reach out to the reach out to the racist white Dominican president (i.e Dictator) was by now fully convinced that in ordered to be saved by those savages, they needed outside help, and who else than Spain (what a tremendous disservice). To conclude, to me the Author is sincerely a Haitian apologist in the same way that there are Nazi apologist. while the desire was not extermination, it was a deliberate ideology to deprive a people of their land, language, and in short culture. Good book but read other (original sources) to get the full picture.

One of the most important recent books in Caribbean thought
This extraordinary book won the Frantz Fanon Prize of the Caribbean Philosophical Association in 2004 and then went on to win the Modern Language Association's prize in Latin American Studies and the Latin American Studies Association prize in 2005 for outstanding book.It is all well deserved.This work challenges many of the contemporary approaches to the study of race by offering a rich interplay of the compexities of Latin American conceptions of whiteness and those in the U.S. as they converge in a unified denial of the existence---and more, the HUMANITY---of the first Black Republic in the New World.Dr. Fischer's array of specializations, which range from comparative literature, philosophy, and history to linguistic skills that include French, Spanish, German, and some of the indigenous languages of South America, brings out the nuance and challenges of the Haitian revolution as understood in Haiti and as feared, cheered on, or simply denied from without.This work is a must-read for anyone working in Africana thought, especially in Caribbean studies, and theories of modernity. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (36)

A Must Read for anyone interested in underestanding politics in Haiti
This book is indeed balanced and I wholeheartedly recommend it anyone who want to understand the complexities of H aitian political society. Haiti is very complex and people want simple answers like the elite vs the poor but it is just not that sample and this author did a good job explaining my Haitian society to an outsider. Haiti is not like anyplace on Earth, it has its own history and its people act and think differently because of our experiences with our leaders and the international community.

Some people may dismiss this book but they have never even lived in Haiti and some may dismiss the book because it does not paint Aristide in a bright light. But his book speak the truth. I recommend to all my haitian friends who grew up in America and don't understand why haiti is so hard to rule. Those who grew up in Haiti and keep up with politic read this book and said this guys speak the truth.The reality is the people who love Aristide don't want to see his faults and those who hate Aristide don't want to give him any credit.

Either you love Aristide or you hate him and that has nothing to do with class. Aristide armed and empower a certain element in society and he could no longer control them. he tried to eliminate them and it backfired on him so he was no longer trusted by his own people. Duvalier always had control over his macoutes because there was a hierachy within the macoutes unlike Aristide thugs.Aristide has no qualms with inciting violence when it was convenience to him. I can't deny he had his own plan forHaiti and the oppposition did frustrate those plans so he did resort to arming gangs to take out anyone who is becoming more popular with the people than him. Aristide popularity has nothing to do with him being a good president, it shows a lack of charismatic leaders. Aristide is Smart and ruthless but he just did not have Duvalier skills and international support to become a bonafide dicator. to many people in Haiti hated him and he could not exile all them. Aristide being still popular does not change the fact that he empower drug dealers, armed gang so he could run Haiti with an iron fist but unlike Duvalier he did not have the backing of the international community because he reneged on a lot of deals he made with the international community. Whether or not he created the Chaos, he promoted it to his advantage to get rid of his adversaries, he armed young gang leaders and if someone doesn't think so then they never been to Cite Soleil.

Aristide is a very charismatic figure, he did not appear out of nowhere, he has built trust within a large majority of the poor. but you can't run a country by alienating the elite and the middle class. most educated people in Haiti caught up to his machiavellian scheme.

Either way Read the book, it is good and it is the best I have read in the market re Haiti politic

An Attempt at a Balanced Viewpoint...worth the read!
Looking at the reviews for this book it is clear readers either love it or hate it. I for one do not claim to have such specific insights and information as some reviewers seem to have but I will throw in my two cents nonetheless!

I enjoyed reading this book because it was the first time I was able to read really anything on Haiti even marginally analytical of Aristide's time in office. I came at my reading on the country of Haiti as one trying to discern the facts as best I could and become acquainted with the background of Haiti's struggles in the 1990's. Everywhere I turned to look every author was repeating the same Aristide worship while decrying various enemies, the West etc. etc. I can clearly see that Aristide was immensely popular with a very large segment of the population but political popularity in Haiti (and I argue probably in the world in general) is more often than not based not on a lot of solid reasoning but on sound bites played over the radio, the politician's own rhetoric, his/her promises and personality. Also no matter how popular or how wonderful a leader Aristide may have or may not have been he is not a saint for the simple reason that no man is - certainly no politician! To absolve Aristide of ANY and ALL wrongdoing, any and all responsibility for the nation of Haiti's condition under his rule and directly following his rule is ludicris.

I have been living in Haiti for a little over a year now and when you talk to people about Haiti and about Arisitide it is more often than not with an air of disappointment as they express their feelings about what could have been what might have been. They along with so many others were really hopeful as Aristide came to power but were disappointed. I have heard more than once the saying "All smooth roads lead to Aristide's house." Aristide had a grand opportunity laid before him - he had the people of Haiti on his side. He had I firmly believe a vision for his nation and a desire to see the people lifted out of poverty. He unfortunately like so many others wasted that opportunity in favor of furthering his own interests. There are many others who of course can have a share of the blame laid at their feet. You can blame the Americans, the French, the Canadians, the upper class, the rebellious military-like factions in Haiti and maybe even rightfully so but to do so and give the actual leader of that nation a free pass is simply not good enough for me. History always has two sides. There is enough evidence of Aristides misdeeds and liberalities to convict him on many counts. This book lays out many of those charges against Aristide himself and many in his government.

Many critics of this book pick out this little detail or that little detail and want to argue it (which is their right) but how about the big picture? Is Aristide totally innocent? Is there any truth to some of these claims? I believe the answers are obvious. I do not think it is a difficult thing to come to a place of balance and honesty when describing the Aristide years in Haiti and I believe this book attempts to do just that.

Insidiously Dishonest
I bought this book hoping to better understand the Aristide era in Haiti. This account is poorly sourced, consistantly biased, and woefully lacking in evidence to support its assertions. The voice of those who supported Aristide -- i.e. the vast majority of Haitian voters -- is entirely missing from this narrative. Allegations are presented as fact. Biased parties are treated as reliable sources.Crimes by Arisitide supporters are attributed directly to Aristide. Petty infractions by the Aristide government are given far more scrutiny and condemnation than the massive crimes against humanity committed by his opponents and predecessors. Overall, the book strikes me as insidiously dishonest.

Sympathetic and Troubling
The mainstream and alternative media in the US present a remarkably uniform picture of recent Haitian history, with former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide starring as a wildly popular leftist leader who challenged the US and the International Monetary Fund, and, rightly or wrongly, was removed from office for his hubris.

The reality is more complicated. It's true that Aristide came out of the radical grassroots movement of the 1980s, won the presidency in 1990 as a left populist, and was overthrown in 1991 by a coup in which the US role was unmistakable. But it's equally true that he returned to power in 1994 accompanied by a 20,000-member US occupation force--an action not exactly in the tradition of Jacobo Arbenz and Salvador Allende.

It's this more complicated reality that's the focus of Michael Deibert's Notes From the Last Testament, an often disturbing study of Haiti after Aristide's 1994 return. Deibert, who covered the country for Reuters from 2001 to 2003, presents a rich panorama of views from the ground--from the left and from the right, from Aristide's supporters, from his detractors, and, tellingly, from his disillusioned former supporters. What's most striking is Deibert's reporting on the so-called "chimè," the young Aristide supporters in Port-au-Prince's most impoverished neighborhoods. While others debated whether the chimè were dangerous gangsters or a genuine grassroots movement, Deibert interviewed them in their homes in Cité Soleil, socialized with them, and made them his friends. The result is a unique, sympathetic, and troubling portrayal.

People who want a simplistic morality tale should avoid this book; but for people with a real desire to understand Haiti and Latin American social movements Deibert's account will be an indispensable reference.

If we only knew
I am a Haitian, born and raised. I supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide. I fought for him. My family suffered. Some lost their lives. If I only knew then what Michael Deibert has now so clearly laid out in his book. Just the facts. Most of which I did not know, or perhapschose to ignore, as did so many of my friends and countrymen. I wanted so badly to believe that the little priest from Cite Soleil was the prophet we had prayed so long for. We were all looking for a new Toussaint Louverture, who would free us once again, this time from our own self-imposed bondage. Through Deibert clear and dispassionate writing and his careful, on the spot research, I have now come to realize that Aristide (our Titid ) was just the last of a long series of corrupt tin-pot dictators whose sole objective seems to have been to retain power by any means, including through his murderous thugs,and to plunder from the poorest of the poor.
I find one jarring flaw in Deibert's book however. He should have written it years ago. Perhaps I would not have chosen to ignore the facts, perhaps the long agony of my people would have been shortened. We will know next time though, thanks toMr. Deibert. No more thieves, no more murderers. My country has had enough of those!
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Product Description

"The Uses of Haiti tells the truth about uncomfortable matters -- uncomfortable, that is, for the structures of power and the doctrinal framework that protects them from critical scrutiny. It tells the truth about what has been happening in Haiti, and the U.S. role in its bitter fate." -- Noam Chomsky

"A classic" -- Jonathan Kozol, author, Death at an Early Age and Savage Inequalities

Customer Reviews (16)

Haiti nightmares
Good book. Farmer exposes his wealth of experience and the sad fate of Haiti in this book. A must read for all those who wish to work in Haiti.

Outstanding, if dispiriting
A must read for anyone who wants to really understand Haiti, and especially its
sad long history of poverty secondary to exploitation and racism. It's a paradigm for the United States' policies and behaviors of last century throughout Central and South America. (Book can still be purchased directly from publisher, Common Courage, at reasonable cost).

Haiti's History
Paul Farmer is a wonderful human being who has devoted his life to helping the poor of Haiti get medical care. This is barely mentioned in the book. To me, this gives his opinions even more credibility.

He details the abuses of Haiti by our hegemony and then details the reasons for these abuses. I had always suspected the reasons, and my suspicions were confirmed. I wanted my opinions bolstered by facts or I wanted to change my opinions. This book was erudite, cogent, and salient. I want to say it was enjoyable, but the subject is so sad, that word does not quite fit.

If you're interested in Haiti's plight, this is a great boook to read.

Tiring propaganda...
No doubt Paul Farmer is a dedicated physician and public health administrator.I would never want to discredit his efforts in that arena. Unfortunately he lives in a dark, conspiratorial world surrounded by like-minded left-wing colleagues.His book is a long rant against the "evils of America."A review of his sources in "Uses of Haiti" reads largely like a list of grocery store check-out line tabloids.I expect to read in an upcoming book that "American jet-trails are purposely poisoning the Haitian poor."

There is little mention of the Haitian-bred despots that have terrorized their own people and pocketed the foreign aid sent (in my naive opinion) in good will toward alleviating suffering.How did we Americans make leader after leader so fantastically greedy and blood thirsty?We may well have assisted Papa Doc to remain in power to stave off the perceived communist threat. If so, that was a tragically monumental mistake.Remember though that the media between 1957 and 1971 was not what is today.Remember also that we did not know of the atrocities of Nazi Germany until the end of WWII. The human rights abuses briefly elucidated by Graham Greene were likely largely unknown.

No matter how you spin it, the liberation theologist, Aristide, was no better than the rest.In fact, history shows he was worse as he selfishly dashed the hopes of the poor and sponsored muders like his predecessors. He is likely laying on a beach in South Africa (not Central African Republic) spending Haiti's aid money as I write this. This book is a virtual extollation of this erratic leader. One might expect Dr Farmer's next book to be a tome worshipping Jeremiah Wright's avid protege, Barack Obama.

My recommendation is to not read this book in isolation.Don't read it as factual. This is a far left, conspiracy theory demonizing American foreign policy.There may be some truth within its bindings but it is steeped with endless rants and accusations.

not a black and white situation
I am a Haitian, lived in Haiti until I came to the States at 28. I went back to visit the graves of my ancestors a few months before the departure of the monster Aristide. Aristide's regime and Duvalier's years in power did that poor country in. I had great hopes when Aristide came to power and felt that he was going to change things for the better. Most Haitians welcomed him with open arms. He was a former priest who had suffered persecution under Duvalier and Haitians, dark and light skinned, poor and rich had great hope. Unfortunately he managed to do worst than his malevolent predecessor. He became sinfully rich and his associates did the same, had his critics and opponents assassinated, got involved with the drug trade etc... His Lavalas party was a bunch of ignorant, sadist,criminal thugs which is still killing, kidnapping and looting the country. I know, because my friends, my family, my people live in Haiti and try to discourage me any time I tell them I want to go back. Aristide and Duvalier have managed to bury Haiti until Kingdom comes. ... Read more