Haiti and Its History: A Reading List
Books on the Haitian Immigrant Experience and Haitian History
Some of you have asked for a reading list since Haiti has been in the news quite a lot lately! It’s impossible for me to cover every book ever written about Haiti, but I wanted to present a selection to get you started on the path to learning more.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James (originally published in 1938)
A powerful and impassioned historical account of the largest successful revolt by enslaved people in history: the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803. The Black Jacobins, by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, was the first major analysis of the uprising that began in the wake of the storming of the Bastille in France and became the model for liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of plantation owners toward enslaved people was horrifyingly severe.
And it is the story of a charismatic and barely literate enslaved person named Toussaint L'Ouverture, who successfully led the Black people of San Domingo against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces--and in the process helped form the first independent post-colonial nation in the Caribbean.
Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot
A classic text that I’ve read both in college and graduate school. Prof. Trouillot, one of the most renowned Haitian scholars, demonstrated how the writing and telling of history are fundamentally wrapped in power structures. He uses Haiti as the foundation for his argument.
Brother, I’m Dying Ewidge Danticat
I was trying to find something on Spotify and came across an interview Danticat did for her most recent essay collection which I mention below. This book has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography!
From the age of four, award-winning writer Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph as her "second father," when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for America. And so she was both elated and saddened when, at twelve, she joined her parents and youngest brothers in New York City. As Edwidge made a life in a new country, adjusting to being far away from so many who she loved, she and her family continued to fear for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorated.
In 2004, they entered into a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Brother I'm Dying is an astonishing true-life epic, told on an intimate scale by one of our finest writers.
We’re Alone: Essays by Edwidge Danticat
Here is Danticat discussing her book on NPR’s Book of the Day Podcast
Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat's childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We're Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.
From hurricanes to political violence, from her days as a new student at a Brooklyn elementary school knowing little English to her account of a shooting hoax at a Miami mall, Danticat has an extraordinary ability to move from the personal to the global and back again. Throughout, literature and art prove to be her reliable companions and guides in both tragedies and triumphs.
Danticat is an irresistible presence on the page: full of heart, outrage, humor, clear thinking, and moral questioning, while reminding us of the possibilities of community. And so "we're alone" is both a fearsome admission and an intimate invitation--we're alone now, we can talk. We're Alone is a book that asks us to think through some of the world's intractable problems while deepening our understanding of one of the most significant novelists at work today.
Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History by Michael Deibert
In this moving and detailed history, Michael Deibert, 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 hundreds of interviews with Haitian political leaders, international diplomats, peasant advocates and gang leaders, as well as ordinary Haitians, Deibert's book provides a vivid, complex and challenging analysis of Haiti's recent history.
Haiti: The Aftershocks of History by Laurent DuBois
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 devastating 2010 earthquake, Haiti was known as a benighted place of poverty and corruption, blamed by many for its own wretchedness. But as acclaimed historian Laurent Dubois demonstrates, 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 surrounding colonial powers; and the intense struggle within Haiti itself to define its newfound freedom and realize its promise.
Let me know below if you’ve read any of these books or if you would like to add some of your own suggestions in the comments!
with care,
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