#1584: New book by list member Anthony Catanese: HAITIANS: MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

Congratulations and THANKS to Tony Catanese on his new book HAITIANS:
MIGRATION AND DIASPORA.  Westview Press, Boulder, co., 1999.
ISBN:  0-8133-3543-4.  Hardbound copy is $55.00.  I'm not sure if there
is a paperback.

I'm extremely behind on my reading just now, so I haven't read Tony's
book, which is high on my list.  It seems to be a very useful reference
book among other things.  The jacket cover tells us:

"Haitian boat people have been in the news since the early 1980s, and are 
part of a much longer migration history between the world's first black 
republic and the United States.  the vast majority of Haitians are 
desperately poor rural residents; Haitian Americans, on the other hand, 
are concentrated along the urbanized Atlantic seaboard and are not 
ensnared in poverty.  HAITIANS: MIGRATION AND DIASPORA uses U.S. census 
and Haitian interview data, coupled with a broader analysis of Haitian 
rural conditions and the effects of foreign and domestic policy on their 
movement, to underscore the need for a comprehensive rural strategy for 
economic development in Haiti.  such a strategy, Catanese argues, is 
vital for improving the lives of Haitians and removing the impulse for 
leaving their preferred rural domiciles.

"The book begins in the early 1980s, after almost twenty-five years of 
Duvalierism, when rural Haitian were beset by several important migration 
and refugee issues: pig extermination and repopulation, deforestation and 
reforestation, and the 1990s embargo by the U.S. and its allies.  After 
examining how Haitians responded to and were affected by these centrally 
important issues, the author proposes an array of ways to make rurla 
Haiti livable for its people.  Finally, the issue of Haitian Americans is 
addressed."

In case any of you don't have the pleasure to know Tony Catanese he is not
only a list member (some actually do other things than just below to this
list  :)  ), he is a professor of economics at DePauw University.  He has
many publications on economic and rural issues concerning Haiti.

The book, with bibliography and index, is 143 pages long.  It is filled
with very useful data and analysis and is organized along the lines of the
themes described above, beginning with the pig crisis of the early 80s.

This is one that many of you will want to own since it functions as a
handy referrence book as well as a thesis on how to address rural poverty
in Haiti.

I do hope to return in the future with a more detailed review of the 
contents, but I did want to get the word out to you to get this one while 
it's still hot off the press.

Bob Corbett