26855: Girard: (announce) New book on Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: philippe girard <pg245091@hotmail.com>

Subject: new book on Haiti

Fellow Corbetteers,

I wanted to let you know about an important new book that just came out.
Entitled "Paradise Lost: Haiti's Tumultuous Journey from Pearl fo the
Caribbean to Third World Hot Spot", it covers the entire span of Haiti's
history from Columbus to the flood in Gonaives in 2004, with a greater
focus on the last 20 years. Issues such as racial conflict, relations
with powerful neighbors, economic underdevelopment, and political
violence receive lengthy treatment. The main question the book addresses
is: what is the source of Haiti's current political and economic
troubles? The book's answer is at odds with the dependency theory that
dominates much of Haiti's historiography. Instead of blaming Spain,
France, and the US for Haiti's misfortune, the book focuses on Haitian
leaders, from Dessalines to the Duvaliers and Aristide, whose own
policies led Haiti down a downward spiral. This book will probably irk a
few Haitian nationalists, but it will also start a much-needed debate on
Haitians' own responsibility for their own troubles, as well as local
solutions to the current crisis that wouldn't require begging the
international community for more aid. "Un pavé dans la mare," as
francophones would say.

The book is out this month. Here is the amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/140396887X/qid=1134401265/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap
_i1_xgl14/104-1378645-5642315?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

Philippe Girard

Assistant Professor of Caribbean History

McNeese State University