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List of history books on Haiti

Compiled by Bob Corbett (bcorbett@crl.com)
11 October 1994

There has been some call for what history books are available about Haiti. The answer is that almost none are actually available. Most are out of print and very difficult to find. Below is a list of books which have been written about Haiti and also comments on some of them

This list is in no way exhaustive. I'm just sitting in front of my books and selecting some which I think are most noteworthy.

Bob Corbett
Webster University
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994

P.S. Virtually all the books and articles mentioned below are in the PEOPLE TO PEOPLE library which I am building.

One more note: I am going to skip books which are primarily on the colonial period and the Haitian Revolution [because they] are available and in many libraries. It is [literature on] the history of later periods that is not easily found.

Baur, John Edward.
Faustin Soulouque, Emperor of Haiti: His Character and His Reign.
Americas 6 (1949): p. 131-166.
Focus on the rule of Soulouque.
Balch, Emily Greene, ed.
OCCUPIED HAITI.
New York: Writers, 1927
An excellent book of essays by various authors, mainly unfavorable toward the US Occupation.
Bausman, Frederic, et al.
THE SEIZURE OF HAITI BY THE UNITED STATES.
New York: Foreign Policy Assoc. 1922.
A huge work with lots of documentation. An important work on the first occupation.
Bellegarde-Smith.
HAITI: THE BREACHED CITADEL.
Boulder Colo. Westview, 1990.
See the review I posted yesterday on this newsgroup.
Chandler, John.
BRIEF NOTICES OF HAYTI: WITH ITS CONDITIONS, RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS.
London: Ward 1842.
Sort of interesting eye witness account. Not too accurate, but unusual.
Davis, H.P.
BLACK DEMOCRACY: THE STORY OF HAITI.
Rev. ed. New York: Biblo and Tanner, 1936.
This is my second favorite history, after Heinl and Heinl. It is a solid history with some great charts and lists in the back.
Diederich, Bernard and Al Burt.
PAPA DOC: THE TRUTH ABOUT HAITI TODAY.
New York: McGraw Hill, 1969.
Also known as PAPA DOC AND THE TONTON MACOUTE. A journalistic, but very very useful account of the horrors of Papa Doc's early years. I do have a few copies of this for sale too.
Dorsinville, Max H.
dd>Haiti and Its Institutions: From Colonial Times to 1957
In THE HAITIAN POTENTIAL: RESEARCH AND RESOURCES OF HAITI. (See Rubin et al, below)
Ferguson, James.
PAPA DOC, BABY DOC: HAITI AND THE DUVALIERS.
Oxford, Eng. Basil Blackwell. 1987.
A good and useful book.
Greene, Graham.
THE COMEDIANS.
A novel which really conveys the darkness of the Papa Doc period. This book got Greene banned for life from Haiti. I do have copies of this novel for sale, both in paper and hard bound.
Healy, David.
GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY IN THE WILSON ERA: THE U.S. NAVY IN HAITI, 1915-1916.
Madison: U. Of Wisc. Press, 1976.
This is a fascinating account of the first year of the first occupation. Healy puts forward the thesis that Admiral Caperton was virtually abandoned by Washington and that in large measure the invasion and early occupation was his own doing, assuming he was doing the will of Washington.
Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr. and Nancy Gordon Heinl.
WRITTEN IN BLOOD: THE STORY OF THE HAITIAN PEOPLE, 1492-1971.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
This is certainly >THE best history of Haiti ever written in English. Like others I have urged Nancy Heinl to bring the book out in a reprint, and while she is certainly willing she has not found a publisher willing to publish this huge volume.
Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.
Are We Ready to Intervene in Haiti?
Reporter 34, no. 11 (1966) 26-28.
Interesting. Some in the US were contemplating an invasion and occupation in 1966!
Laguerre, Michel S.
VOODOO AND POLITICS IN HAITI.
NY: St. Martin's, 1989.
See the review of this book I recently posted on this newsgroup.
Leger, J.N.
HAITI HER HISTORY AND HER DETRACTORS.
Westport Connecticut: Negro University Press, 1970 (reprint of a 1907 book).
This is an excellent history, though a bit favorable to the mulatto class. The book is in large measure a response to Sir Spencer St. John's notorious book (see St. John) below.
Logan, Rayford W.
THE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH HAITI 1776-1891.
Chapel Hill: Univ. of NC Press, 1941.
An awesome scholarly work. Not to be missed.
MacKenzie, Charles.
NOTES ON HAITI: MADE DURING A RESIDENCE IN THAT REPUBLIC.
2 Volumes. London: Cass, 1971 reprint of a 1830 work.
Good for the period it covers.
Marshall, Harriet Gibbs.
THE STORY OF HAITI: FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE ISLAND BY CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS TO THE PRESENT DAY.
Boston: Christopher, 1930.
I don't know this book and don't have it in my library. I would LOVE to find a copy.
McCrocklin, James H.
GARDE'HAITI: TWENTY YEARS OF ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING BY THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS.
Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute: 1956
An amazing book on the US building of the Haitian Army. Given what happened to this army in subsequent history the book is even more amazing.
Montague, Ludwell Lee.
HAITI AND THE UNITED STATES, 1714- 1938.
Durham, NC, Duke U. Press, 1940.
A simply AWESOME work of scholarship. This book can't be missed by anyone wanting to understand US - Haitian relations over the years.
THE NATION Magazine
Special note. During the first occupation of Haiti, The Nation led the anti-occupation front here in the US. Dozens of articles, close to 100, appeared over the years and The Nation can take a major credit for bringing the US to an eventual anti-occupation stance. This is especially interesting given that today the two strongest anti-occupation pieces in mainstream literature have appeared in The Nation!
Nicholls, David.
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE AND POLITICAL AUTONOMY: THE HAITIAN EXPERIENCE.
Reprinted in: HAITI IN CARIBBEAN CONTEXT: ETHNICITY, ECONOMY AND REVOLT.
New York: St. Martin's, 1985
Very good book, typical of Nicholls' careful scholarship and good writing.
Nicholls, David.
FROM DESSALINES TO DUVALIER: RACE, COLOUR AND NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE IN HAITI.
Cambridge, Eng. Cambridge U. Press, 1979. This is an excellent book, but it is not as much a history as a historiography -- that is a book about the histories of Haiti. Nonetheless, one gets lots of straight history and a good read.
Paquin, Lyonel.
THE HAITIANS: CLASS AND COLOR POLITICS.
Brooklyn: Multi-Type, 1983.
This is a strange book. The main bulk of the book, from the beginnings of Haitian history to about 1960 is really a good book. Then Paquin went into exile in New York and the rest of the book is horrible, a sort of gossipy book about himself and his plans to return to Haiti as the next Emperor! I do have some copies of this paper back for sale.
Plummer, Brenda Gayle.
(I don't have her book here with me, but she has an excellent book on the foreign policy of Haiti and American connection up to 1902.)
Rotberg, Robert.
HAITI: THE POLITICS OF SQUALOR.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.
An important book which does not have a very favorable assessment of the potential of Haitians to run their country with any efficiency.
Schmidt, Hans.
THE UNITED STATES OCCUPATION OF HAITI, 1915-1934.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U Press, 1971.
This is THE history of the first occupation. Very anti-occupation, and he uses Marine Corps documents themselves to damn the occupation.
St. John, Spenser.
HAYTI: OR THE BLACK REPUBLIC.
London, Smith Elder, 1884.
An infamous work, extremely racist and even was the source of the myth that Voodoo included human sacrifice. Leger's book, see above, was a response to this book, a book that Haitians understandably hate.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph.
NATION, STATE AND SOCIETY IN HAITI, 1804-1984.
Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1985.
I've never seen this work. If anyone knows about it, please let me know, and, of course, I'd love to get a copy for my library.