What do you think?
Rate this book
Haiti: The Aftershocks of History
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 history
Even 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.
Even 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.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 2011
189 people are currently reading
2599 people want to read
About the author
Laurent Dubois
119 books45 followersLaurent Dubois (PhD. University of Michigan) is associate professor of history at Michigan State University. His book A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 won the American Historical Association Prize in Atlantic History and the John Edwin Fagg Award. He is also the author of Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, which was a Christian Science Monitor Noteworthy Book of 2004 and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2004, Les esclaves de la République: l'histoire oubliée de la première emancipation, 1787–1794, and Haiti: The Aftershocks of History.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/lauren...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/lauren...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
August 24, 2019
Dubois has given us a tight and tidy "popular" history of poor, maltreated Haiti. I put "popular" in quotes because what that means to me isn't so much that the average layperson will read this (they won't, but they could with ease), but rather that it is not abstruse, jargon-laden, and crotch-deep in elusive analyses. Instead, it is straightforward and poignant, with genuine sympathy.
That Haiti is a singularly misunderstood state is the core of this work. Dubois sifts through the shifty, historiographical shenanigans of his predecessors with adroitness, showing how over two centuries of blatant racist exclusivism has determined not only how Haiti's history has been interpreted but how Haiti itself was the bane and bitch of powers greater than it.
And that's the real story here. A slave nation that overthrew its criminal taskmasters nearly a century before "emancipation" in the US. A newly free nation of African-Americans that struggled to find its footing in a world that viewed it as a hideous aberration well into the 1960s. A choice quote from the usually-esteemed asshole, creationist champion and American Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, sums it up: "Think of it! Niggers speaking French!"
Starting with France and resulting in the US occupation of Haiti (few American readers may well realize that we occupied the country for decades with ensuing atrocities and murder the mainstay...sounds familiar...) and support for monstrous dictators like Duvalier, Haiti has gotten the proverbial shaft from pretty much everybody, never having had a chance to development on its own terms. A sad, but fascinating story.
That Haiti is a singularly misunderstood state is the core of this work. Dubois sifts through the shifty, historiographical shenanigans of his predecessors with adroitness, showing how over two centuries of blatant racist exclusivism has determined not only how Haiti's history has been interpreted but how Haiti itself was the bane and bitch of powers greater than it.
And that's the real story here. A slave nation that overthrew its criminal taskmasters nearly a century before "emancipation" in the US. A newly free nation of African-Americans that struggled to find its footing in a world that viewed it as a hideous aberration well into the 1960s. A choice quote from the usually-esteemed asshole, creationist champion and American Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, sums it up: "Think of it! Niggers speaking French!"
Starting with France and resulting in the US occupation of Haiti (few American readers may well realize that we occupied the country for decades with ensuing atrocities and murder the mainstay...sounds familiar...) and support for monstrous dictators like Duvalier, Haiti has gotten the proverbial shaft from pretty much everybody, never having had a chance to development on its own terms. A sad, but fascinating story.
February 6, 2021
Despite not having photographs, this book is an excellent reference on Haiti's history, culture, and political economy. Written not by a journalist but by an academic with a deep background on the country and honest about the role that Western colonial powers France and the US played in invading and exploiting Haiti, the book was written just in time to include a brief mention of the terrible earthquake that struck the country in 2010.
The book also dispels myths and stereotypes about Haiti, including the practice of vodou. This and the author's familiarity with the country's national language, Kreyol, are among the book's strengths.
However dire Haiti's situation is, still recovering from the earthquake and decades of colonial oppression and internal troubles, the first country in Latin America to gain independence from Western colonial rule in the 19th century still has the potential to overcome the external and internal factors that have impeded its development.
The book also dispels myths and stereotypes about Haiti, including the practice of vodou. This and the author's familiarity with the country's national language, Kreyol, are among the book's strengths.
However dire Haiti's situation is, still recovering from the earthquake and decades of colonial oppression and internal troubles, the first country in Latin America to gain independence from Western colonial rule in the 19th century still has the potential to overcome the external and internal factors that have impeded its development.
February 23, 2012
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 went to Cuba instead, a decision I have never really regretted.
I don’t suppose I will ever go to Haiti now. Still, my fascination with the place remains; my fascination with the history, the religion, the culture and the people. This is a country that fought hard for its independence, finally achieved in 1804. But for years after French slavers were not reconciled to its existence. In the end this impoverished country was forced to buy recognition, to pay France for the value of the lost colony and the lost slaves at a cost of some $21 billion in current values. In other words, to achieve full independence the people of this land had literally to buy their own hides.
It’s easy to forget - indeed, if one ever remembered - that Haiti is the second oldest self-governing nation in the western hemisphere, only seventeen years younger than the United States. But the newly independent American States, already rich, had a huge potential, a manifest destiny to meet. What did Haiti, the slave republic, have ahead; what was its destiny? Why, little but internal divisions, corruption, misrule and tragedy. The first truly ‘anti-imperialist’ nation on earth, and the first black state, it could expect little help or understanding in a racist and colonial epoch. Indeed, its very existence wasn’t recognised by the United States until 1862, until that country itself was fighting a war partially inspired by the fact that some Americans owned other Americans.
In the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake came foreign journalists, trying to make sense of the whole thing, trying to make sense of Haiti, a victim of nature, of history; a victim of many perceived flaws of an internal and external nature. As a corrective to some of the more simplistic views Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University, has published Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, a well-researched, well-written and, it has to be said, engagingly partisan account of the country’s longer quake.
He takes his stand early on, rejecting the prevalent view of the Haitians as either victims or villains;
The true causes of Haiti’s poverty and instability are not mysterious, and they have nothing to do with any inherent shortcomings on the part of Haitians themselves. Rather, Haiti’s present is the product of its history: of the nation’s founding by enslaved people who overthrew their masters and freed themselves; of the hostility that this revolution generated among the colonial powers surrounding the country; and of the intense struggle within Haiti itself to define that freedom and realize its promise.
It’s certainly a catalogue of misery and misfortune, the misery beginning with the forms of slavery practiced by the French, which the author quire rightly describes as ‘murderous’; a system where people were literally worked to death, their place taken by fresh imports from Africa. Freed of one crippling burden in 1804, the people were left with another - a ruinous cycle of debt. To pay off the compensation demanded by the French, the newly independent country was forced to borrow heavily from banks in America and other countries, paying the principle sum plus accumulated interest. The debt to France was only paid off in the 1940s, by which time a cycle of poverty and underdevelopment was spinning ever faster.
That was bad enough. Worse: freedom did not bring freedom; it brought America. It brought a new form of imperialism, attitudes and perceptions that might be best summed up in the words of William Jennings Bryant, Secretary of State in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson – “Think of it! Niggers Speaking French!”
It was Wilson, later wanting to make the world safe for democracy, who sent the Marine Corp to occupy Haiti in 1915, an occupation that was to last for almost twenty years. It’s a pity this episode is not better known, the first of the ‘pacification’ missions that were to be a feature of US foreign policy so far as today. It was a wretched example that might have served as a warning over later interventions in Vietnam and Afghanistan. As Dubois describes, the American intervention, undertaken in the pretext of reforming Haiti’s chaotic government, was in some ways just as murderous and exploitative as that of the French. Even after the Marines pulled out in 1934 the aftershocks were to be long-lasting.
When one begins to think things can’t get worse they do! Foreign oppressors went; native oppressors came, none more oppressive than the Duvaliers, father and son, who terrorised the country with their Tontons Macoute militia, thought to be responsible for the deaths of as many as sixty thousand people.
The paradox of this book is that while Dubois argues against the view of ordinary Haitians as victims his narrative shows time and again that that’s exactly what they are, the victims of foreign greed and aggression; the victims of corrupt and venal politicians who served no other interests but their own. His is also an exercise in the narrowness of blame, and he completely fails to tackle the bigger question, namely to what extent are the Haitians responsible for their own shortcomings?
Haiti: the Aftershocks of History is a reasonably good book, though a less than perfectly objective for my taste. It’s certainly better on the early part of the history, falling down over more recent events, particularly in regard to the role played by Jean Bartand Aristide. The coups of 1991 and 2004 are dismissed in a few inadequate lines. The author maintains that the events of 2004 in particular are too recent to evaluate properly. Well, maybe they are but at least the attempt should be made.
In the end I found this book, while commendable in many parts, an exercise in excuses and apologetics, a crutch for a country that surely has show time and again that the last thing it needs is a crutch. The message seems to, even so far as the aid efforts, governmental and non-governmental, that followed the quake, leave Haiti alone and all will be well. It won’t. Haiti needs more engagement with the international community, not less.
I don’t suppose I will ever go to Haiti now. Still, my fascination with the place remains; my fascination with the history, the religion, the culture and the people. This is a country that fought hard for its independence, finally achieved in 1804. But for years after French slavers were not reconciled to its existence. In the end this impoverished country was forced to buy recognition, to pay France for the value of the lost colony and the lost slaves at a cost of some $21 billion in current values. In other words, to achieve full independence the people of this land had literally to buy their own hides.
It’s easy to forget - indeed, if one ever remembered - that Haiti is the second oldest self-governing nation in the western hemisphere, only seventeen years younger than the United States. But the newly independent American States, already rich, had a huge potential, a manifest destiny to meet. What did Haiti, the slave republic, have ahead; what was its destiny? Why, little but internal divisions, corruption, misrule and tragedy. The first truly ‘anti-imperialist’ nation on earth, and the first black state, it could expect little help or understanding in a racist and colonial epoch. Indeed, its very existence wasn’t recognised by the United States until 1862, until that country itself was fighting a war partially inspired by the fact that some Americans owned other Americans.
In the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake came foreign journalists, trying to make sense of the whole thing, trying to make sense of Haiti, a victim of nature, of history; a victim of many perceived flaws of an internal and external nature. As a corrective to some of the more simplistic views Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University, has published Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, a well-researched, well-written and, it has to be said, engagingly partisan account of the country’s longer quake.
He takes his stand early on, rejecting the prevalent view of the Haitians as either victims or villains;
The true causes of Haiti’s poverty and instability are not mysterious, and they have nothing to do with any inherent shortcomings on the part of Haitians themselves. Rather, Haiti’s present is the product of its history: of the nation’s founding by enslaved people who overthrew their masters and freed themselves; of the hostility that this revolution generated among the colonial powers surrounding the country; and of the intense struggle within Haiti itself to define that freedom and realize its promise.
It’s certainly a catalogue of misery and misfortune, the misery beginning with the forms of slavery practiced by the French, which the author quire rightly describes as ‘murderous’; a system where people were literally worked to death, their place taken by fresh imports from Africa. Freed of one crippling burden in 1804, the people were left with another - a ruinous cycle of debt. To pay off the compensation demanded by the French, the newly independent country was forced to borrow heavily from banks in America and other countries, paying the principle sum plus accumulated interest. The debt to France was only paid off in the 1940s, by which time a cycle of poverty and underdevelopment was spinning ever faster.
That was bad enough. Worse: freedom did not bring freedom; it brought America. It brought a new form of imperialism, attitudes and perceptions that might be best summed up in the words of William Jennings Bryant, Secretary of State in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson – “Think of it! Niggers Speaking French!”
It was Wilson, later wanting to make the world safe for democracy, who sent the Marine Corp to occupy Haiti in 1915, an occupation that was to last for almost twenty years. It’s a pity this episode is not better known, the first of the ‘pacification’ missions that were to be a feature of US foreign policy so far as today. It was a wretched example that might have served as a warning over later interventions in Vietnam and Afghanistan. As Dubois describes, the American intervention, undertaken in the pretext of reforming Haiti’s chaotic government, was in some ways just as murderous and exploitative as that of the French. Even after the Marines pulled out in 1934 the aftershocks were to be long-lasting.
When one begins to think things can’t get worse they do! Foreign oppressors went; native oppressors came, none more oppressive than the Duvaliers, father and son, who terrorised the country with their Tontons Macoute militia, thought to be responsible for the deaths of as many as sixty thousand people.
The paradox of this book is that while Dubois argues against the view of ordinary Haitians as victims his narrative shows time and again that that’s exactly what they are, the victims of foreign greed and aggression; the victims of corrupt and venal politicians who served no other interests but their own. His is also an exercise in the narrowness of blame, and he completely fails to tackle the bigger question, namely to what extent are the Haitians responsible for their own shortcomings?
Haiti: the Aftershocks of History is a reasonably good book, though a less than perfectly objective for my taste. It’s certainly better on the early part of the history, falling down over more recent events, particularly in regard to the role played by Jean Bartand Aristide. The coups of 1991 and 2004 are dismissed in a few inadequate lines. The author maintains that the events of 2004 in particular are too recent to evaluate properly. Well, maybe they are but at least the attempt should be made.
In the end I found this book, while commendable in many parts, an exercise in excuses and apologetics, a crutch for a country that surely has show time and again that the last thing it needs is a crutch. The message seems to, even so far as the aid efforts, governmental and non-governmental, that followed the quake, leave Haiti alone and all will be well. It won’t. Haiti needs more engagement with the international community, not less.
January 4, 2012
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 ways Haiti's story has been told, used, massaged, appropriated, and created by people who write about it. It's a very humane, humble aspect of the book, and it enlightened the student, reader, and writer in me.
Dubois also weaves in stories about people who have told stories about Haiti; he's ever alert to the ways Haiti's story has been told, used, massaged, appropriated, and created by people who write about it. It's a very humane, humble aspect of the book, and it enlightened the student, reader, and writer in me.
May 29, 2025
In consideration of the fact that this was my first book read for this year, many details of what I’d planned on writing in my review have now been forgotten. Perhaps this is a good thing, though, if it allows me to finally embrace brevity!
As I mentioned when finishing up the book on Italy post-Mussolini last night, it’s difficult to get to a balanced conclusion when the scholarship of a particular country, historical event, or political leader is rather limited. If anyone reading this knows of additional literature on Haiti that’s been translated into English, I’d certainly love to know any recommendations to help me to better understand the full context of why Haiti is simultaneously such a fascinating nation, and yet has been so incredibly maltreated and misunderstood.
Although I’m sure most of us would agree that Haiti is long overdue for a viewpoint sympathetic to the immense struggles they’ve faced (as opposed to the usual overt racism or bizarre fetishization of past accounts) - it has appeared obvious to most readers (myself included) that the author is trying to paint far too optimistic of a picture. By glossing over entire decades and dictators which don’t support the author’s assertion that Haiti would be in a very different position today (had colonialist policies and foreign occupations not deprived the population of their right to rule) he does more of a disservice than a favor.
It’s impossible to not notice the theme of a very divided Haiti: one in which the ruling politicians were happy to exploit poor laborers and farmhands for their own personal gain. Some of these politicians would campaign so mercilessly against their opponents that violence, not equality and sound social policies, is what won elections. Sometimes an election season would start with five different parties and five different candidates, yet the choice would come down to only two - after the other leaders had been brutally murdered (along with anyone known to be supporting them as well).
This clearly didn’t allow for the individual with the best interests of the nation to emerge as the winner, but instead, the most corrupt, most greedy, most power hungry, most dangerous candidate and his party would seize power, and rule over the electorate with unrelenting fear and intimidation.
Of course the French - then the American’s sickening treatment of Haitians as a subjugated, inferior people (instead of the incredibly brave country - the first and only country - to overthrow its foreign masters with a successful slave revolt) has caused inestimable damage to Haiti’s attempts at building a peaceful and viable democracy. Especially with France forcing Haiti to sign an agreement in which they were forced to pay back their foreign masters for the “loss of land” - a vindictive move by the French to ensure Haiti’s economy would not be thriving any time soon.
The country managed to hold out against signing this “agreement” for a considerable length of time, as memory serves. However, with the rest of the world refusing to recognize Haiti as a sovereign, independent nation (only to be seen as legitimate and “free” once they’d capitulated to the French) - it wasn’t as though they had much of a choice. Not if they ever sought to be taken seriously in world affairs and to open up their country for imports and exports with the rest of the world, that is. Even though this undoubtedly put Haiti in an impossible position, it’s also difficult to argue that the country would have thrived under their strongmen presidents who all seemed to prefer rule by repression rather than by democracy.
Especially when you take into account the awful legacy of Duvalier and his son, who made life absolutely miserable for everyday citizens under their rule. This is one of the parts Dubois glosses over, devoting maybe a dozen pages to, despite decades of the family’s iron fisted rule. I understand that it isn’t convenient for the author’s hypothesis, but I believe readers deserve to know as much of the history as possible, which means including information that at times doesn’t fit with your main argument.
Readers can still read about the domestic issues Haiti faced (it’s rather common for any newly formed democracy to be shaky on its legs initially) and determine had Haiti been helped, rather than completely screwed, by foreign powers claiming to act in its interest, then perhaps they’d have had a chance to form a more open and honest domestic government.
I really enjoyed this picture of Haiti as a strong nation with unique customs (which are by no means criminal or perverse, as the west would have people outside the country believe) as I have never read in depth about the country’s past and how it shaped its future. Still, it just makes me eager to read a more balanced narrative that factors both foreign and domestic issues into consideration to create an overview for Haiti’s troubled and violent history.
While I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone well-versed in Haiti’s history, if the reader has little knowledge and wishes to understand more about this fascinating island nation, then it will make for an interesting and informative read for those curious to find out.
PS - I had originally begun typing this on my laptop, but it froze up and I lost the review - so please excuse any typos or long-winded comments. I really didn’t want to start over, but my desire to get ONE review finished tonight won out in the end.
As I mentioned when finishing up the book on Italy post-Mussolini last night, it’s difficult to get to a balanced conclusion when the scholarship of a particular country, historical event, or political leader is rather limited. If anyone reading this knows of additional literature on Haiti that’s been translated into English, I’d certainly love to know any recommendations to help me to better understand the full context of why Haiti is simultaneously such a fascinating nation, and yet has been so incredibly maltreated and misunderstood.
Although I’m sure most of us would agree that Haiti is long overdue for a viewpoint sympathetic to the immense struggles they’ve faced (as opposed to the usual overt racism or bizarre fetishization of past accounts) - it has appeared obvious to most readers (myself included) that the author is trying to paint far too optimistic of a picture. By glossing over entire decades and dictators which don’t support the author’s assertion that Haiti would be in a very different position today (had colonialist policies and foreign occupations not deprived the population of their right to rule) he does more of a disservice than a favor.
It’s impossible to not notice the theme of a very divided Haiti: one in which the ruling politicians were happy to exploit poor laborers and farmhands for their own personal gain. Some of these politicians would campaign so mercilessly against their opponents that violence, not equality and sound social policies, is what won elections. Sometimes an election season would start with five different parties and five different candidates, yet the choice would come down to only two - after the other leaders had been brutally murdered (along with anyone known to be supporting them as well).
This clearly didn’t allow for the individual with the best interests of the nation to emerge as the winner, but instead, the most corrupt, most greedy, most power hungry, most dangerous candidate and his party would seize power, and rule over the electorate with unrelenting fear and intimidation.
Of course the French - then the American’s sickening treatment of Haitians as a subjugated, inferior people (instead of the incredibly brave country - the first and only country - to overthrow its foreign masters with a successful slave revolt) has caused inestimable damage to Haiti’s attempts at building a peaceful and viable democracy. Especially with France forcing Haiti to sign an agreement in which they were forced to pay back their foreign masters for the “loss of land” - a vindictive move by the French to ensure Haiti’s economy would not be thriving any time soon.
The country managed to hold out against signing this “agreement” for a considerable length of time, as memory serves. However, with the rest of the world refusing to recognize Haiti as a sovereign, independent nation (only to be seen as legitimate and “free” once they’d capitulated to the French) - it wasn’t as though they had much of a choice. Not if they ever sought to be taken seriously in world affairs and to open up their country for imports and exports with the rest of the world, that is. Even though this undoubtedly put Haiti in an impossible position, it’s also difficult to argue that the country would have thrived under their strongmen presidents who all seemed to prefer rule by repression rather than by democracy.
Especially when you take into account the awful legacy of Duvalier and his son, who made life absolutely miserable for everyday citizens under their rule. This is one of the parts Dubois glosses over, devoting maybe a dozen pages to, despite decades of the family’s iron fisted rule. I understand that it isn’t convenient for the author’s hypothesis, but I believe readers deserve to know as much of the history as possible, which means including information that at times doesn’t fit with your main argument.
Readers can still read about the domestic issues Haiti faced (it’s rather common for any newly formed democracy to be shaky on its legs initially) and determine had Haiti been helped, rather than completely screwed, by foreign powers claiming to act in its interest, then perhaps they’d have had a chance to form a more open and honest domestic government.
I really enjoyed this picture of Haiti as a strong nation with unique customs (which are by no means criminal or perverse, as the west would have people outside the country believe) as I have never read in depth about the country’s past and how it shaped its future. Still, it just makes me eager to read a more balanced narrative that factors both foreign and domestic issues into consideration to create an overview for Haiti’s troubled and violent history.
While I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone well-versed in Haiti’s history, if the reader has little knowledge and wishes to understand more about this fascinating island nation, then it will make for an interesting and informative read for those curious to find out.
PS - I had originally begun typing this on my laptop, but it froze up and I lost the review - so please excuse any typos or long-winded comments. I really didn’t want to start over, but my desire to get ONE review finished tonight won out in the end.
March 2, 2025
Wow. I’m not sure I can convey how much I learned from this book. Haiti has an inspiring, tragic, and nuanced history that the author (Dubiois) covers succinctly. It’s hard to even wrap my mind around how much the Haitians have endured at the hands of the French, the US, and their own violent dictators.
I think additional text on the US’ involvement in Latin America is where I’m headed next.
I think additional text on the US’ involvement in Latin America is where I’m headed next.
February 26, 2018
This book will stay with me for a long time.
November 15, 2013
This is a fascinating yet frustrating book about the history of the Republic of Haiti. Written by a scholar of the French Caribbean who teaches at Duke, "Haiti: The Aftershocks of History" strives to trace three interlocking streams of modern Haitian history: 1) the country's origins as the product of a successful slave revolt (circa 1800); 2) the hostile reaction that the revolt triggered in the larger world; and 3) the internal struggle of Haitians to realize the goals of the revolution.
This interpretive framework is very insightful, and the author does an excellent job at weaving the three strands throughout the book, in large part by incorporating the voices and perspectives of Haitian artists and intellectuals. Dubois' descriptions of the revolutionary period and of the United State's occupation of the island (approx. 1915-1934) are particularly insightful and provide a great deal of information with which likely few Americans are familiar. In his description of the United States' military occupation , Dubois throws the curtain back on an era in which America failed to live up to its espoused values, inflicted great hardship on a neighboring country born in a similar type of values-based revolution, and then forgot about the whole situation, save for reappearing occasionally to offer highly racialized criticisms of Haitians and Haitian society.
Another strong aspect of Dubois' account is his emphasis on how external forces working on Haitian society interacted with internal ones to produce many of the country's economic and social problems. And the key internal divide is the one separating the country's educated political class from the mass of the population-a divide that in many ways traces its roots back to the French colonial era.
While the book is fascinating in many respects, it has a very odd structure. The book unfolds in chronological order, yet it emphasizes certain periods in considerable depth and seemingly skims over other, seemingly more important periods. For example, the book devotes multiple chapters to events from the mid- to late-1800s, yet it devotes a total of nine pages to everything that has happened in Haiti since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. For the life of me, I couldn't discern the author's rationale for allocating space to topics within the book.
Overall, "Haiti: The Aftershocks of History" is an excellent one-volume introduction to the history of that country--an introduction informed by an extreme sensitivity to Haitian society. Yet at the same time, the book's odd structure left me feeling very unfulfilled in places.
This interpretive framework is very insightful, and the author does an excellent job at weaving the three strands throughout the book, in large part by incorporating the voices and perspectives of Haitian artists and intellectuals. Dubois' descriptions of the revolutionary period and of the United State's occupation of the island (approx. 1915-1934) are particularly insightful and provide a great deal of information with which likely few Americans are familiar. In his description of the United States' military occupation , Dubois throws the curtain back on an era in which America failed to live up to its espoused values, inflicted great hardship on a neighboring country born in a similar type of values-based revolution, and then forgot about the whole situation, save for reappearing occasionally to offer highly racialized criticisms of Haitians and Haitian society.
Another strong aspect of Dubois' account is his emphasis on how external forces working on Haitian society interacted with internal ones to produce many of the country's economic and social problems. And the key internal divide is the one separating the country's educated political class from the mass of the population-a divide that in many ways traces its roots back to the French colonial era.
While the book is fascinating in many respects, it has a very odd structure. The book unfolds in chronological order, yet it emphasizes certain periods in considerable depth and seemingly skims over other, seemingly more important periods. For example, the book devotes multiple chapters to events from the mid- to late-1800s, yet it devotes a total of nine pages to everything that has happened in Haiti since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. For the life of me, I couldn't discern the author's rationale for allocating space to topics within the book.
Overall, "Haiti: The Aftershocks of History" is an excellent one-volume introduction to the history of that country--an introduction informed by an extreme sensitivity to Haitian society. Yet at the same time, the book's odd structure left me feeling very unfulfilled in places.
June 9, 2014
This is the second Haiti related book I've read by Dubois, the first one being "Avengers of the New World." I highly dislike both. Dubois get way to into the minutiae of his story and loses the big picture argument. In Aftershocks, he spent so much time pouring over every detail of every terrible president in Haiti from 1805-1930 that he completely rushes through the Duvalier and Aristide eras. The epilogue seemed contrived and rushed because of this.
Also - its clear that Dubois leans a very particular way when it comes to Haitian history and it comes through in the book. I was also not impressed with his writing style in general - it felt like i was reading a text book half the time with all of the direct source quotations he would litter into the text.
For those that are looking for a more comprehensive, "bigger picture" history of Haiti - this is NOT the book for you.
Also - its clear that Dubois leans a very particular way when it comes to Haitian history and it comes through in the book. I was also not impressed with his writing style in general - it felt like i was reading a text book half the time with all of the direct source quotations he would litter into the text.
For those that are looking for a more comprehensive, "bigger picture" history of Haiti - this is NOT the book for you.
April 5, 2022
An informative book, though it focused a lot on individual figures - usually the king/president/emperor/dictator - and it takes 300 pages for a woman to be mentioned by name.
The thesis of the book is something like "ordinary Haitians" are perfectly capable of looking after their own needs and the needs of their immediate community. These needs are basically to be left alone to farm according to the effective and creative techniques they've developed over centuries. Maybe they grow some coffee or cocoa for export, but maybe not. Disaster strikes when 1) someone wants Progress; 2) someone starts Getting Weird About Race Again; 3) somehow a power-hungry narcissist gets elected.
It's a little romantic sometimes, and, again, it is kind of a "Stuff Men Did" history of Haiti, but like most Americans I don't know anything about this history so I learned a lot.
The thesis of the book is something like "ordinary Haitians" are perfectly capable of looking after their own needs and the needs of their immediate community. These needs are basically to be left alone to farm according to the effective and creative techniques they've developed over centuries. Maybe they grow some coffee or cocoa for export, but maybe not. Disaster strikes when 1) someone wants Progress; 2) someone starts Getting Weird About Race Again; 3) somehow a power-hungry narcissist gets elected.
It's a little romantic sometimes, and, again, it is kind of a "Stuff Men Did" history of Haiti, but like most Americans I don't know anything about this history so I learned a lot.
January 26, 2018
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 with more modern 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 the political history and economy. There is strong analysis of the lasting negative impact of the early 20th century American occupation and the 19th century indemnity imposed by France. I would have liked more detail on the most recent decades.
July 31, 2021
Considering this covers 200 years of history, this is an incredibly readable primer on Haiti from the Revolution to the present. I came out of it with a much greater understanding of why Haitian history has unfolded the way that it has, and the ways in which the U.S. and European countries have actively encouraged the worst of it. However, the agency and goals of the Haitian people are of foremost interest to the author. Not a casual read, but you don't have to be an expert in the subject to get a lot out of this.
August 17, 2018
Excelente narrativa histórica sobre o Haiti, vinculando à história do país elementos culturais, religiosos e sociais, sempre explicando o contexto internacional pertinente. Só senti falta da conjuntura atual local, que necessitaria de uma reedição do livro.
December 21, 2018
This book is an excellent depiction of Haiti’s story. It’s a biography of the nation that taught me a lot.
Read
October 20, 2025Very well written and accessible to anyone unfamiliar with Haitian history!
Read
October 10, 2025Really good. Reframes the very little understanding of Haiti I had and has made me actively interested in the country now.
October 3, 2019
Loved this!
Wow, I absolutely Couldn’t put this book down at all, amazing! If you love history and want to understand revolutions this is the book for you
Wow, I absolutely Couldn’t put this book down at all, amazing! If you love history and want to understand revolutions this is the book for you
July 10, 2013
1. Dubois, Laurent. Haiti: the aftershocks of history. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2012. Print.
2. 0805093354 $21.18
3. Review: "HAITI The Aftershocks Of History." Kirkus Reviews (2012): 12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 July 2013.
4. VASOL EPF.1 a-f, WHII.7 a-d
5. This non-fiction history traces the history of Haiti from 1804 (the revolution) to 1963 (Papa Doc). Dubois traces Haiti’s current difficulties back through history and places a chunk of blame for Haiti’s current difficulties on interference from the outside powers. While dryly written, It effectively ties the revolution together to present day problems. It answers the questions we have about why Haiti is the way Haiti is.
This book can be selected for the library on the basis of authority. The author is a professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke and director of the Center for French and Francophone Studies and of the Haiti laboratory of the Franklin Humanities Institute. It can also be selected on the basis of accuracy. It is a factual account that is current with the interest in Haiti after the earthquake.
I would put this book in the hands of an advanced reader with an interest in history or a teacher to pair excerpts of non-fiction for writing prompts in US History, Government, or World History II. This would be an excellent text for writing prompts or DBQs.
6. These two books can be paired together on the basis of developing background knowledge. The culture of modern Haiti is described by Shorty along with the suffering of the slums and the involvement of the NGOs in the form of the blonde doctor. The culture at the time of the revolution is described by Toussaint L’Ouverture. This book fills in the gap between the two.
The books can also be paired on the basis of appropriateness. Both reading levels and emotional maturity required are high.
The books can also be on the basis of student interest. In Darkness may raise some questions about Haitian culture, political, economic, or social climate that can be answered thoroughly by Haiti: The Aftershocks of History.
2. 0805093354 $21.18
3. Review: "HAITI The Aftershocks Of History." Kirkus Reviews (2012): 12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 July 2013.
4. VASOL EPF.1 a-f, WHII.7 a-d
5. This non-fiction history traces the history of Haiti from 1804 (the revolution) to 1963 (Papa Doc). Dubois traces Haiti’s current difficulties back through history and places a chunk of blame for Haiti’s current difficulties on interference from the outside powers. While dryly written, It effectively ties the revolution together to present day problems. It answers the questions we have about why Haiti is the way Haiti is.
This book can be selected for the library on the basis of authority. The author is a professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke and director of the Center for French and Francophone Studies and of the Haiti laboratory of the Franklin Humanities Institute. It can also be selected on the basis of accuracy. It is a factual account that is current with the interest in Haiti after the earthquake.
I would put this book in the hands of an advanced reader with an interest in history or a teacher to pair excerpts of non-fiction for writing prompts in US History, Government, or World History II. This would be an excellent text for writing prompts or DBQs.
6. These two books can be paired together on the basis of developing background knowledge. The culture of modern Haiti is described by Shorty along with the suffering of the slums and the involvement of the NGOs in the form of the blonde doctor. The culture at the time of the revolution is described by Toussaint L’Ouverture. This book fills in the gap between the two.
The books can also be paired on the basis of appropriateness. Both reading levels and emotional maturity required are high.
The books can also be on the basis of student interest. In Darkness may raise some questions about Haitian culture, political, economic, or social climate that can be answered thoroughly by Haiti: The Aftershocks of History.
June 4, 2012
There is a lot to get out of the story of Haiti. Its a nonstop story of sadness. And this book pretty much hits all that. My issue with it was that it's geared way too much towards ancient history. Far too much of the book is focused on the period of history dating back to the 1600's. The worst of course started with the French. They raped they country for all they could and only gave up control of the colony reluctantly. To make things worse, the French then insisted that Haiti pay reparations to French banks for lost income, setting up a near-permanent state of poverty for the country and enriching French citizens.
Later the United States had a sordid period of exploiting Haiti, working to stamp out voodoo, giving large industry control of industries and doing everything to keep the peace.
By the time you've covered all that ground, there is little left to be outraged about - even though that begins the period where Haitians themselves ran their own country and ran it into the ground. Very sad. The earthquake is just more gravy.
Later the United States had a sordid period of exploiting Haiti, working to stamp out voodoo, giving large industry control of industries and doing everything to keep the peace.
By the time you've covered all that ground, there is little left to be outraged about - even though that begins the period where Haitians themselves ran their own country and ran it into the ground. Very sad. The earthquake is just more gravy.
July 14, 2012
A good overall history of Haiti - starting from way back in the colonial period and taking you all the way through the quake, albeit with most detail focused early on. I enjoyed the focus on the earlier periods, since many other books deal more with recent political events. I also enjoyed the author's incorporation of Haitian writings and speeches, which left me feeling that if I wanted to explore a particular period further I had options. I did find that some era were treated in perhaps more detail than the layperson might want, and the slightly non-chronological style could be confusing at times (I recall thinking we had finished with the part about the US occupation, only to find in the next chapter we were rewinding to the 20's again). Neither of the world wars made any kind of appearance, and knowing as little as I do about Haitian history it seems odd that the country wasn't effected. All in all a good sort of middle ground level history for those who want a solid backing in Haiti's history without deep and intense study.
April 5, 2019
I was long intrigued by the history of Haiti– the first black republic. It's a saddening story full of broken promises, overconfident hopes, and treachery in its leaders. Dubois explains the history very well in a way that is entertaining and genuinely interesting. As some other reviewers have noted, I agree that he brushes over a lot of topics. Such as:
Dessalines' Genocide
Faustin Soulouque
Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier
Arisitide to 2010
Dubois also tries to historically paint Haitian peasants in a very good light or remove 'blame'. While I think this is commendable given the context of Haiti's history, I have a feeling it sometimes gets in the way of seeing both sides of a situation which I find distracting. Other than that, I think its a very solid book and recommend it to anyone looking to learn anything about Haiti
Dessalines' Genocide
Faustin Soulouque
Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier
Arisitide to 2010
Dubois also tries to historically paint Haitian peasants in a very good light or remove 'blame'. While I think this is commendable given the context of Haiti's history, I have a feeling it sometimes gets in the way of seeing both sides of a situation which I find distracting. Other than that, I think its a very solid book and recommend it to anyone looking to learn anything about Haiti
April 25, 2014
I enjoyed this history of Haiti. It isn't exhaustive, it's mostly summary, but I think he hits the important events of this tumultuous place. I found the author's treatment of the 20-year horrendous American occupation to be fair and accurate, and I wish more people knew about the atrocities committed upon the Haitian people by the US government and Marines. However, I didn't think the author did justice to the Duvalier dictators (father and son), especially to 'Baby Doc.' I also felt that the last 30 years of Haiti's history were rushed at the end of the book. I think this is a good introduction to Haitian history.
January 25, 2013
This review of the history of Haiti is mainly through a political history viewpoint but as well tries to give a explanation for the psyche of the Haitian peopleAlthough he mentions the brutalization of the people throughout their history and in particular mentions women as targets of sexual aggression he does not single out a male based culture as culprit.Still a good book especially if you can read what is not there.
July 11, 2019
This covers some really important and frustrating history. I had no idea about the extent of the US occupation of Haiti or the damage it caused.
The read is dense, though, and the pace is pretty uneven. I prefer a history that tells the story of the human characters and their motivations with a little more depth than just listing out their actions.
The read is dense, though, and the pace is pretty uneven. I prefer a history that tells the story of the human characters and their motivations with a little more depth than just listing out their actions.
March 24, 2024
Summary: A history of Haiti, from colonial rule under France up to the earthquake of 2010.
If you are following world news you will have noticed the descent of Haiti into gang violence and a dissolution of its government with no president since the assassination of President Moise in 2021 and the resignation of acting Prime Minister of Ariel Henry in March 2024. Numerous citizens have been kidnapped, many have fled the country and the country is facing critical levels of food insecurity. With that in view, I picked up this history of the country to see if I might gain some understanding of the current events. Laurent Dubois narrates the history of the country from the colonial period under France up until 2010, although the period after the Duvaliers, father and son, is only briefly covered.
It is a history to make one weep. The country is the only country to gain independence through the revolt of a slave people, in this case against France. Slaves on the profitable sugar plantations rose under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture in a fight running from 1791 to 1804 for independence. Toussaint died as a prisoner of war during an attempt by the French to recapture the former colony. The French were finally defeated in 1804 under a coalition led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines who proclaimed himself emperor, re-established the plantation system rather than the small farms people wanted, and then died.
One element of this story is the instability, authoritarian character and corruption of leaders that goes back to the nation's origins. Over its history, the country has experienced over 30 coups. Leaders re-wrote constitutions several time to protect their power, in one instance, for life. There was a reliance upon the military, or in the case of the Duvalier dynasty of 30 years, the employment of a private militia, the Tonton Macoutes to ruthlessly stifle opposition.
Another is the pattern of foreign interference throughout the country's history, beginning with the colonial rule of France. After independence, France held the country in thrall through an onerous indemnity, that took the best part of a century to liquidate, setting up a destructive pattern of borrowing and debt that held a stranglehold on the country. For a period of time, the country's treasury was a French bank!
The United States did not recognize Haiti for over fifty years, frightened by the idea of a successful slave revolt. Then with the expansion of U.S. Naval power Haiti first became attractive as a site for a coaling station. Later, business interests were interested in what could be extracted from the country. Internal order brought an invasion of U.S. Marines in 1915 to restore order, build roads and infrastructure, and promote agricultural reforms.
It was a high-handed paternalistic effort, with few bothering to learn the language and culture. When resistance was encountered, villages were destroyed and atrocities occurred for which there has never been a reckoning. Our Marines were only withdrawn in the 1930's but our countries' interests continue to be intertwined. In the Duvalier era, for example, Nelson Rockefeller can be seen in chummy photos with "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Dubois extends this paternalistic approach to many of the NGOs, aid and mission organizations working in the country, that often competed with local economies, supplanting local trades, draining resources, and often repeating the military's mistake of not learning French or Creole, nor the indigenous culture.
Dubois presents a picture of a country in which the people often outshine the leaders, pressing to be free from plantation economies and foreign interests, and for government reforms. Sadly, the pattern of people rising to leadership, only to follow the corrupt, authoritarian models of their predecessors, is repeated again and again.
Finally, we see the natural devastation of the country, from monocultures that exhaust the soil, hillside erosions and the loss of topsoils, and deforestation, culminating in the devastating earthquake of 2010 (and another, after publication, in 2020). What is grievous is that this was a country once rich in natural resources that is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Amid all the devastation, Dubois still holds out hope that the people who rose from slavery can rise to build a new Haiti. I found myself far less certain, wondering how the habits of good civil government, the rule of law, ethical business practice and sustainable agriculture can be established and developed. Given the current descent into gang violence and anarchy, I wonder if we are watching a nation in the throes of self-destruction, one that could precipitate a terrible genocide. Is it not time for the international community to act to prevent great loss of life, provide critical aid, and to offer the breathing space to restore civil order? But only Haiti can do the rest.
If you are following world news you will have noticed the descent of Haiti into gang violence and a dissolution of its government with no president since the assassination of President Moise in 2021 and the resignation of acting Prime Minister of Ariel Henry in March 2024. Numerous citizens have been kidnapped, many have fled the country and the country is facing critical levels of food insecurity. With that in view, I picked up this history of the country to see if I might gain some understanding of the current events. Laurent Dubois narrates the history of the country from the colonial period under France up until 2010, although the period after the Duvaliers, father and son, is only briefly covered.
It is a history to make one weep. The country is the only country to gain independence through the revolt of a slave people, in this case against France. Slaves on the profitable sugar plantations rose under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture in a fight running from 1791 to 1804 for independence. Toussaint died as a prisoner of war during an attempt by the French to recapture the former colony. The French were finally defeated in 1804 under a coalition led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines who proclaimed himself emperor, re-established the plantation system rather than the small farms people wanted, and then died.
One element of this story is the instability, authoritarian character and corruption of leaders that goes back to the nation's origins. Over its history, the country has experienced over 30 coups. Leaders re-wrote constitutions several time to protect their power, in one instance, for life. There was a reliance upon the military, or in the case of the Duvalier dynasty of 30 years, the employment of a private militia, the Tonton Macoutes to ruthlessly stifle opposition.
Another is the pattern of foreign interference throughout the country's history, beginning with the colonial rule of France. After independence, France held the country in thrall through an onerous indemnity, that took the best part of a century to liquidate, setting up a destructive pattern of borrowing and debt that held a stranglehold on the country. For a period of time, the country's treasury was a French bank!
The United States did not recognize Haiti for over fifty years, frightened by the idea of a successful slave revolt. Then with the expansion of U.S. Naval power Haiti first became attractive as a site for a coaling station. Later, business interests were interested in what could be extracted from the country. Internal order brought an invasion of U.S. Marines in 1915 to restore order, build roads and infrastructure, and promote agricultural reforms.
It was a high-handed paternalistic effort, with few bothering to learn the language and culture. When resistance was encountered, villages were destroyed and atrocities occurred for which there has never been a reckoning. Our Marines were only withdrawn in the 1930's but our countries' interests continue to be intertwined. In the Duvalier era, for example, Nelson Rockefeller can be seen in chummy photos with "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Dubois extends this paternalistic approach to many of the NGOs, aid and mission organizations working in the country, that often competed with local economies, supplanting local trades, draining resources, and often repeating the military's mistake of not learning French or Creole, nor the indigenous culture.
Dubois presents a picture of a country in which the people often outshine the leaders, pressing to be free from plantation economies and foreign interests, and for government reforms. Sadly, the pattern of people rising to leadership, only to follow the corrupt, authoritarian models of their predecessors, is repeated again and again.
Finally, we see the natural devastation of the country, from monocultures that exhaust the soil, hillside erosions and the loss of topsoils, and deforestation, culminating in the devastating earthquake of 2010 (and another, after publication, in 2020). What is grievous is that this was a country once rich in natural resources that is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Amid all the devastation, Dubois still holds out hope that the people who rose from slavery can rise to build a new Haiti. I found myself far less certain, wondering how the habits of good civil government, the rule of law, ethical business practice and sustainable agriculture can be established and developed. Given the current descent into gang violence and anarchy, I wonder if we are watching a nation in the throes of self-destruction, one that could precipitate a terrible genocide. Is it not time for the international community to act to prevent great loss of life, provide critical aid, and to offer the breathing space to restore civil order? But only Haiti can do the rest.
August 25, 2020
From my years of teaching world history core classes to undergraduates, I know that teaching the Haitian Revolution is de rigueur… but after 1804, Haiti disappears from the syllabus. It was in part to correct this that I picked this book up- it even echoes my teaching experience, where I had read Dubois’s book on the Haitian Revolution first years ago before picking this volume up to read.
Maybe people avoid post-revolutionary Haitian history because it is a stone cold bummer. The country never truly had a chance to recover from the devastation of the revolution, between infighting and the imposition of crushing indemnities to the French slaveholders from which it had wrested its freedom. It had no chance to develop like a “normal” country, indebted and embargoed from the very beginning. The military was the one somewhat functional national institution and often called the shots.
Dubois walks a fine line between ascribing the appropriate amount of blame for Haiti’s misery to outside powers, and to acknowledging the agency of the Haitian people in their own situation. To a certain extent, he splits the difference- the Haitian masses have seldom had any systematic say in their own affairs. Successive strongman governments wrote constitutions that limited the franchise along property lines, and until astonishingly late no government business could be done in Kreyol, the language of the masses, only in French, monopolized by the elite. Foreign governments, including the US, which had the Marines run the country between 1915 and 1934, were perfectly happy with this state of affairs, agreeing with the Haitian elite that the Haitian people couldn’t be trusted to run their own affairs. Ironically, much of the evidence of this was governmental dysfunction… that is, the dysfunction of bodies over which the common people had no say.
The Haitian people, according to Dubois, have had a pretty consistent set of priorities from revolutionary times onwards: disinclination towards anything that reminded them of the plantation system and insistence upon independence on both a personal and a national level. Their central institution is the lakou, or cluster of family-held smallholdings. Most rural Haitians are quietly but stubbornly insistent on working their own land, not working for wages for somebody else, regardless of the inducements, in Dubois’s telling. This is the “counterplantation” system and ideology of the Haitian people. Everyone who has run Haiti, from military men to populists, from the Marines to Papa Doc Duvalier, have attempted to undermine, undo, or at the very least tinker with the counterplantation, even as they mouth its values of independence from foreigners and whites.
Maybe this, the insistence on the part of Haitians to go their own way, is why the rest of the world is so consistently so spiteful where the island nation is concerned. The world has never forgiven Haiti for overthrowing slavery on its own, for being black, for being Haiti. There’s a vindictiveness to the way foreign white people, even today, treat the country that you don’t see in the way other “least developed countries” get treated. Take the way outsiders obsess over the Haitian folk religion of Vodou. While the “backward beliefs of the natives” is a common colonialist trope, nowhere in the world that I know of is a folk religion genuinely seen not just as backwards, but as genuinely sinister and dangerous. As recently as the 1990s, elite US soldiers stationed in Haiti were warned of the danger of “voodoo attacks,” according to an essayist I read who was there. Folks, it’s just syncretism. It won’t hurt you.
Dubois’s book works against this dehumanization — in the case of the panic over Vodou, literally the supernaturalizing — of Haiti and its people. The Haitians he depicts, even outsized and genuinely sinister figures like Papa Doc Duvalier, are recognizably human, acting according to human impulses and massive structural constraints. It’s too bad the counterplantation has generally left us less in the way of records and incident than the elites of Haiti and the government they’ve dominated/ran into the ground over and over again. It’s hard to avoid frustration with the Haitian elite, even if you acknowledge they were victims of racism and other forces outside of their control. But the people of Haiti deserve our respect and admiration for their dedication to their hard-won freedom and their ability to survive blow after blow with their humanity intact. ****’
Maybe people avoid post-revolutionary Haitian history because it is a stone cold bummer. The country never truly had a chance to recover from the devastation of the revolution, between infighting and the imposition of crushing indemnities to the French slaveholders from which it had wrested its freedom. It had no chance to develop like a “normal” country, indebted and embargoed from the very beginning. The military was the one somewhat functional national institution and often called the shots.
Dubois walks a fine line between ascribing the appropriate amount of blame for Haiti’s misery to outside powers, and to acknowledging the agency of the Haitian people in their own situation. To a certain extent, he splits the difference- the Haitian masses have seldom had any systematic say in their own affairs. Successive strongman governments wrote constitutions that limited the franchise along property lines, and until astonishingly late no government business could be done in Kreyol, the language of the masses, only in French, monopolized by the elite. Foreign governments, including the US, which had the Marines run the country between 1915 and 1934, were perfectly happy with this state of affairs, agreeing with the Haitian elite that the Haitian people couldn’t be trusted to run their own affairs. Ironically, much of the evidence of this was governmental dysfunction… that is, the dysfunction of bodies over which the common people had no say.
The Haitian people, according to Dubois, have had a pretty consistent set of priorities from revolutionary times onwards: disinclination towards anything that reminded them of the plantation system and insistence upon independence on both a personal and a national level. Their central institution is the lakou, or cluster of family-held smallholdings. Most rural Haitians are quietly but stubbornly insistent on working their own land, not working for wages for somebody else, regardless of the inducements, in Dubois’s telling. This is the “counterplantation” system and ideology of the Haitian people. Everyone who has run Haiti, from military men to populists, from the Marines to Papa Doc Duvalier, have attempted to undermine, undo, or at the very least tinker with the counterplantation, even as they mouth its values of independence from foreigners and whites.
Maybe this, the insistence on the part of Haitians to go their own way, is why the rest of the world is so consistently so spiteful where the island nation is concerned. The world has never forgiven Haiti for overthrowing slavery on its own, for being black, for being Haiti. There’s a vindictiveness to the way foreign white people, even today, treat the country that you don’t see in the way other “least developed countries” get treated. Take the way outsiders obsess over the Haitian folk religion of Vodou. While the “backward beliefs of the natives” is a common colonialist trope, nowhere in the world that I know of is a folk religion genuinely seen not just as backwards, but as genuinely sinister and dangerous. As recently as the 1990s, elite US soldiers stationed in Haiti were warned of the danger of “voodoo attacks,” according to an essayist I read who was there. Folks, it’s just syncretism. It won’t hurt you.
Dubois’s book works against this dehumanization — in the case of the panic over Vodou, literally the supernaturalizing — of Haiti and its people. The Haitians he depicts, even outsized and genuinely sinister figures like Papa Doc Duvalier, are recognizably human, acting according to human impulses and massive structural constraints. It’s too bad the counterplantation has generally left us less in the way of records and incident than the elites of Haiti and the government they’ve dominated/ran into the ground over and over again. It’s hard to avoid frustration with the Haitian elite, even if you acknowledge they were victims of racism and other forces outside of their control. But the people of Haiti deserve our respect and admiration for their dedication to their hard-won freedom and their ability to survive blow after blow with their humanity intact. ****’
January 5, 2019
This book examines the political and economic history of Haiti, from revolution and independence through Lavalas, focusing on forms of government, leaders, and global economic ties. In the revolutionary period and just after, Dubois shows Haitian leaders struggling between an export economy which required the maintenance of the plantation system, and a life of personal liberty, allowing residents to raise crops and livestock for their own families and for market trade. Haitian leaders, who tended to be former generals, favored military spending to protect their island from external forces. However, predatory loans, extortion, and outright robbery by the US, France, and others contributed to mounting debt and internal conflict. Faced with budgets that severely limited growth of infrastructure and utilities, idealistic politicians struggled to make change, and corrupt politicians found ways to cement their power. While Dubois describes the political struggles, he also includes the many examples of representational leadership and cooperative social systems that allowed Haiti to thrive. He challenges narratives that pathologize Haitian government, situating Haiti's political and economic challenges within a network of global influences, clearly implicating the US and France, among others, in exploitation. He also looks at those moments when Haiti may have been able to shift away from corruption, totalitarianism, and puppet-style regimes to a representative style of government that focused on the wellbeing of the majority of people, and thinks about why those moments may have slipped past, without ignoring the historical situation. Dubois describes a nation that has suffered from being repeatedly denied self-determination.
January 20, 2021
Though this may seem like an obvious statement, I liked that the structure of this book was in chronological order of the country. Other nonfiction accounts I have read do not necessarily follow that structure, often leaving me frustrated.
There is a lot of information and a large number of names to keep track of, which is good in terms of thoroughness, but it does take a lot of focus to read.
In terms of historical content, my one complaint is the lack of context with more modern times issues in Haiti. The author does mention that, that events of the past 30 years are still influencing Haitian politics today (and some political players are still in power), however there are two points I would have liked more information on.
(1) multiple people I mentioned reading this book to went, “Haiti, oh god, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, those guys.....” They only got the final chapter devoted to them. I understand that they were only a part of the whole story and context of Haitian history but it felt lacking, especially in....
(2) In the early years the author spends time focused on describing the “Lakou system” and counter-plantation efforts of the Haitian people, which seems like a lot of Haitian culture revolved around. Especially early on it was the efforts of that system which prevented foreign plantations from invading. However, it’s mentioned how this has culturally persisted to today, but how it survived and what it looked like during the Duvalier years, and continuing to the present day was absent, and I would have liked to learn more.
There is a lot of information and a large number of names to keep track of, which is good in terms of thoroughness, but it does take a lot of focus to read.
In terms of historical content, my one complaint is the lack of context with more modern times issues in Haiti. The author does mention that, that events of the past 30 years are still influencing Haitian politics today (and some political players are still in power), however there are two points I would have liked more information on.
(1) multiple people I mentioned reading this book to went, “Haiti, oh god, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, those guys.....” They only got the final chapter devoted to them. I understand that they were only a part of the whole story and context of Haitian history but it felt lacking, especially in....
(2) In the early years the author spends time focused on describing the “Lakou system” and counter-plantation efforts of the Haitian people, which seems like a lot of Haitian culture revolved around. Especially early on it was the efforts of that system which prevented foreign plantations from invading. However, it’s mentioned how this has culturally persisted to today, but how it survived and what it looked like during the Duvalier years, and continuing to the present day was absent, and I would have liked to learn more.
August 12, 2023
What do you know about Haiti (other than the way it's usually dubbed as "the poorest country in the Western hemisphere")? So much of its proud history and rich culture is overshadowed by narratives of violence and poverty (Haiti was one of the countries our 46th president publicly referred to as a shithole).
This book is different. It tells the story of Haiti, its heroes, its hardships, its history. Haiti achieved something extraordinary when the enslaved population living in the wildly profitable colony of Saint-Domingue rose up and threw off their chains of oppression. But that wasn’t how the rest of the world saw it — especially the countries getting rich thanks to the institution of slavery.
That was just one of the many insights I gleaned from this book. It’s jam-packed with history you may have never heard, like the heroics of Toussaint L’ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines or the U.S. occupation of Haiti that began in 1915 and brutalized the country for 20 years in the name of American capitalism…or the atrocities committed by President Frances “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude or the resilience of the Haitian people, largely rural communities that were able to survive by their wits and live by their own rules within the Lakou system.
I usually judge a nonfiction book by A) how much it teaches me and B) how many other great books it introduces to me. This one was definitely a winner. There was a lot for me to learn, plus I added FOUR books to my TBR list.
The first is Haitian scholar Antnor Firmin's The Equality of the Human Races, first published in 1885 when anthropology was just emerging as a specialized field of study —and marginalized at the time for its “radical,” science-based ideas — a critical anthropological text that was WAY ahead of its time. The other three are classic Haitian novels — Breath, Eyes, Memory (Edwidge Danticat), Masters of the Dew (Jacques Roumain) and Love, Anger, Madness (Marie Vieux-Chauvet) — because you'll never understand the heart of a place until you read its great fiction.
This book is different. It tells the story of Haiti, its heroes, its hardships, its history. Haiti achieved something extraordinary when the enslaved population living in the wildly profitable colony of Saint-Domingue rose up and threw off their chains of oppression. But that wasn’t how the rest of the world saw it — especially the countries getting rich thanks to the institution of slavery.
That was just one of the many insights I gleaned from this book. It’s jam-packed with history you may have never heard, like the heroics of Toussaint L’ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines or the U.S. occupation of Haiti that began in 1915 and brutalized the country for 20 years in the name of American capitalism…or the atrocities committed by President Frances “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude or the resilience of the Haitian people, largely rural communities that were able to survive by their wits and live by their own rules within the Lakou system.
I usually judge a nonfiction book by A) how much it teaches me and B) how many other great books it introduces to me. This one was definitely a winner. There was a lot for me to learn, plus I added FOUR books to my TBR list.
The first is Haitian scholar Antnor Firmin's The Equality of the Human Races, first published in 1885 when anthropology was just emerging as a specialized field of study —and marginalized at the time for its “radical,” science-based ideas — a critical anthropological text that was WAY ahead of its time. The other three are classic Haitian novels — Breath, Eyes, Memory (Edwidge Danticat), Masters of the Dew (Jacques Roumain) and Love, Anger, Madness (Marie Vieux-Chauvet) — because you'll never understand the heart of a place until you read its great fiction.
September 30, 2021
Dubois' book on Haiti explores the turbulent two centuries following the Haitian Revolution which saw the first and only ever successful slave revolution (definitely check out Dubois' Avengers of The New World for more about this).
What is immediately striking from reading this book is just how negative an effect western colonialism and foreign policy has had on Haiti. From the huge debt France piled on Haiti during the 19th century for the country daring to break the chains of slavery, to the US occupation a century later, it is clear that the western world continually tried to disregard Haiti as its own independent nation.
This is a really insightful book from Dubois and has helped me to learn more about the country. While I've always had an interest in the revolution, it's only until now that I've begun to learn about the more recent history. One thing that I'm particularly pleased Dubois mentioned was the works of Haitian literature produced during the 20th century (especially with Jacques Roumain and Marie Vieux Chauvet) that I have immediately bought and hope to read soon.
The effects of western colonialism, natural disasters, and the Duvalier regime (both Francois and Jean-Claude) are truly devastating to Haiti.
What is immediately striking from reading this book is just how negative an effect western colonialism and foreign policy has had on Haiti. From the huge debt France piled on Haiti during the 19th century for the country daring to break the chains of slavery, to the US occupation a century later, it is clear that the western world continually tried to disregard Haiti as its own independent nation.
This is a really insightful book from Dubois and has helped me to learn more about the country. While I've always had an interest in the revolution, it's only until now that I've begun to learn about the more recent history. One thing that I'm particularly pleased Dubois mentioned was the works of Haitian literature produced during the 20th century (especially with Jacques Roumain and Marie Vieux Chauvet) that I have immediately bought and hope to read soon.
The effects of western colonialism, natural disasters, and the Duvalier regime (both Francois and Jean-Claude) are truly devastating to Haiti.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews