Roughly six years later, what were your motivations for writing Haiti: The Aftershocks of History? This book urged readers to reconsider Haiti’s importance-political and economic-within the Western Hemisphere during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Recently, Laurent Dubois agreed to talk about Haiti: The Aftershocks of History with Bookforum via email.īookforum: In 2004 you published Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. In this way, the government and the people have always been at odds against each other. Because the country is rich in resources, its leaders have historically insisted on implementing labor-based economic systems, while Haitians typically resist these efforts in favor of education and community development programs. In his most recent book, Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, historian and Duke University professor Laurent Dubois considers this lapse in historical memory.Īftershocks of History unpacks Haiti’s legacy of authoritarianism in light of the centuries-old tension between creating a sustainable economy and maintaining political autonomy in the global sphere. Unfortunately, the country's political victories are often overshadowed by media images of malnourished children and bedraggled homes. What most people know about Haiti can be reduced to two statements: Haiti is the world's first independent black nation-the country declared its independence from France on January 1, 1804-and Haiti is presently the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
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