Haitian History: New Perspectives

Despite Haiti's proximity to the United States, and its considerable importance to our own history, Haiti barely registered in the historic consciousness of most Americans until recently. Those who struggled to understand Haiti's suffering in the earthquake of 2010 often spoke of it as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, but could not explain how it came to be so. In recent years, the amount of scholarship about the island has increased dramatically. Whereas once this scholarship was focused on Haiti’s political or military leaders, now the historiography of Haiti features lively debates and different schools of thought. Even as this body of knowledge has developed, it has been hard for students to grasp its various strands. Haitian History presents the best of the recent articles on Haitian history, by both Haitian and foreign scholars, moving from colonial Saint Domingue to the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. It will be the go-to one-volume introduction to the field of Haitian history, helping to explain how the promise of the Haitian Revolution dissipated, and presenting the major debates and questions in the field today.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Section I: From Saint-Domingue to Haiti Introduction 1. An Unthinkable History: The Haitian Revolution as a Non-Event, Michel-Rolph Trouillot 2. Slave Resistance (from The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below), Carolyn E. Fick 3. Saint-Domingue on the Eve of the Haitian Revolution, David P. Geggus 4. "I am the Subject of the King of Congo": African Political Ideology and the Haitian Revolution, John K. Thornton Section II: Independent Haiti in a Hostile World: Haiti in the Nineteenth Century Introduction 5. The Politics of "French Negroes" in the United States, Ashli White 6. Talk About Haiti: The Archive and the Atlantic’s Haitian Revolution, Ada Ferrer 7. Sword-Bearing Citizens: Militarism and Manhood in Nineteenth-Century Haiti, Mimi Sheller 8. Rural Protest and Peasant Revolt, 1804 – 1869, David Nicholls 9. "The Black Republic": The Influence of the Haitian Revolution on Northern Black Political Consciousness, 1816 – 1862, Leslie M. Alexander Section III: From the Occupation to the Earthquake: Haiti in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Introduction 10. Under the Gun (from Haiti and the United States: The Psychological Moment), Brenda Gayle Plummer 11. VIVE 1804! The Haitian Revolution and the Revolutionary Generation of 1946, Matthew J. Smith 12. Dynastic Dictatorship: The Duvalier Years, 1957 – 1986, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith 13. The Water Refugees (from AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame), Paul Farmer 14. The Rise, Fall, and Second Coming of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Robert Fatton, Jr. 15. Eternity Lasted Less Than Sixty Seconds…, Évelyne Trouillot Index