Haiti: The Political Economy and Sociology of Decay and Renewal

Conceived in blood, ostracized in its early years as an aberration and a threat to the old world order, and ranking dead last in every social index among American countries in the late twentieth century, Haiti stands out. What factors have accounted for Haiti's decay? Can Haiti be renewed? The eight books reviewed in this essay attempt to address these questions, with varying degrees of success. Their explanations of the Haiti problematique fall in two categories. One set of explanations is rooted in Haiti's history, polit-