Includes bibliographical references (pages 442-444) and index (pages 445-467).
Contents:
Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Map of Haiti -- Prologue: storm clouds -- Istwa (history) -- Le blancs debarquent -- Operation Baghdad -- Deceptions and delusions -- The return -- Give us peace or rest in peace -- Uneasy neighbors -- Lavi Che -- Plots and revelations -- Douze janvier -- The republic of NGOs -- Plague -- Tet kale -- In the kingdom of impunity -- Open for business -- A disaster foretold -- When they are president, they will understand me -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Summary:
The world's first independent black republic, Haiti was forged in the fire of history's only successful slave revolution. Yet more than two hundred years later, the full promise of the revolution - a free country and a free people - remains unfulfilled. Home for more than a decade to one of the world's largest UN peacekeeping forces, Haiti has a tumultuous political culture - buffeted by coups and armed political partisans - that combined with economic inequality and environmental degradation, created immense difficulties even before a devastating earthquake leveled the capital of Port-au-Prince in 2010, killing tens of thousands of people. This grim tale, however, is not the whole story. In this moving and detailed history, the author, who has spent two decades reporting on Haiti, chronicles the heroic struggles of Haitians to build their longed-for country in the face of overwhelming odds. Based on years of interviews with Haitian political leaders, international diplomats, peasant advocates, gang leaders, and hundreds of ordinary Haitians, this book provides a vivid, complex, and challenging analysis of Haiti's recent history.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.