haiti history?
Does anyone know of place i could read about the recent (10-20 years) history of Haiti? It seems like a lot of the articles i find on the web assume a lot of knowledge. For instance, i really wasn’t paying much attention during the clinton years. The usual anti-imperialist / anti-capitalist sites i’ve looked through seem to just have the latest events, but i wouldn’t mind a nice timeline or something.
Ride hard, ride free
January 25th, 2006 at 14:55 pm
For an interesting perspective of Haiti during the Papa Doc era I suggest Graham Greene’s “The Comedians”.
January 25th, 2006 at 19:42 pm
BBC country profiles are often helpful; there’s also a link to a timeline on the right…
January 25th, 2006 at 20:20 pm
“We did nothing” a book by Linda Polman has one big chapter about the UN presence in Haiti in the 90’s
January 26th, 2006 at 17:58 pm
By far the best book dealing with recent history of Haiti is “The Uses of Haiti” by Paul Farmer, published by Common Courage Press. An even more recent book is “Getting Haiti Right this Time”, also by Common Courage, which features essays from Paul Farmer as well as Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and others. One could also read the books that Aristide himself wrote, such as “In the Parish of the Poor”.
Of course the standard historical book (and rightfully so) is CLR James’s “The Black Jacobins”, but that is not recent at all.