The Uses of Haiti [Paperback]

Paul Farmer (Author), Noam Chomsky (Introduction), Jonathan Kozol (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

The Uses of Haiti tells the truth about uncomfortable matters—uncomfortable, that is, for the structures of power and the doctrinal framework that protects them from scrutiny. It tells the truth about what has been happening in Haiti, and the US role in its bitter fate.—Noam Chomsky, from the introduction

In this third edition of the classic The Uses of Haiti, Paul Farmer looks at what has happened to the health of the poor in Haiti since the coup.

Winner of a McArthur Genius Award, Paul Farmer is a physician and anthropologist who has worked for 25 years in Haiti, where he serves as medical director of a hospital serving the rural poor. He is the subject of the Tracy Kidder biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this impassioned, sometimes unwieldly, synthesis of history and report, Harvard-based Farmer, who alternates research with medical practice in rural Haiti, offers an indictment of American policy. He traces Haiti's long standing injustice from the sufferings of the 18th century slave economy, and the post-revolution establishment of a still-persistent feudal economy to the U.S. Marine invasion in 1915 and our subsequent support, based on business interests and anticommunism, for tyrants like Papa Doc Duvalier. The democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed in a 1991 coup shortly after he began to redress Haiti's ugly inequalities; Farmer (AIDS and Accusation) notes how media reports meshed with the Bush administration's line, and criticizes the Clinton administration's inaction. Departing from his historical narrative, Farmer also decries harassing U.S. policy toward Haitian refugees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; describes the torture death of a peasant as an outgrowth of U.S. military training; and suggests that AIDS in Haiti should not be blamed on images of squalor, but more on "an established political and economic crisis." American remorse, he suggests, would be the first step toward a new commitment to justice.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Paul Farmer is Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard medical School and Founding Director of Partners in Health. The subject of a just released biography by Tracy Kidder, Farmer is the author of The Uses of Haiti, Infections and Inequalities, and AIDS and Accusation. Greg Bates is Publisher at Common Courage Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 475 pages
• Publisher: Common Courage Press; Third Edition edition (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567513441
• ISBN-13: 978-1567513448
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > History > Americas > Caribbean & West Indies > Haiti
  • #87 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > Caribbean & Latin American

More About the Author

Paul Farmer is UN's Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti and Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard. He is also Professor of Anthropology at Harvard Medical School, chief of Social Medicine and Inequalities at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, and founding director of Partners In Health. Among his numerous awards and honors is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's "genius award."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 82 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential, if uncomfortable reading October 14, 2003

By sarah

Format:Hardcover

This is not an easy book for an American to read. Page after page confronts us with the links between U.S. policies and the horrible suffering of poor Haitians, which continues to this day. It exposes the lies we have told ourselves to justify this treatment- demonizing Haitians who seek a more just international order (from the leaders of the Haitian revolution through the opposition to the U.S. occupation to the current pro-democracy movement), distorting or misrepresenting facts about Haiti, and so on.

But a reader who disables his or her defense mechanisms will find a coherent explanation for Haiti's current misery, and clear directives for how we can help end it. But the book says almost as much about America as it does about Haiti: how we justify doing things abroad that we would never tolerate at home, with the willing collaboration of the press we trust to keep government honest.

Uses of Haiti is a combination of emotion and academic rigor, which is unsettling to most readers used to one or the other. But the emotion (a normal and human response to 20 years of treating Haiti's sick), and rigor (the author is an MD and a PhD in anthropology)complement each other, if the coexistence is sometimes awkward.

101 of 108 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another amazing book from Paul Farmer July 1, 2004

By Megan

Format:Paperback

It is very hard to view the world with anything but pure cynicism after reading the book. Even the title suggests it. Reading about the history and the current troubles of this tiny nation, which has so much in common with the United States, is both depressing and maddening.

This book is a very important read for anyone who is interested in US foreign policy or Latin America. As Farmer says, Haiti is usually not thought of as part of Latin America (indeed, it's usually not thought of at all) but it should be. Like all of Farmer's books, it is extremely well written: it is a fairly quick read that is chock full of information, but it is never overly technical. Someone who is not familiar with the subject or the region (like me, before I read this book) would have no problem reading it.

In fact, I suggest that you keep 2 or 3 copies on you at all times. That way when someone makes an ignorant comment about Voodoo (no matter how multi-cultural and intelligent they're trying to sound) you can hand them a copy and tell them to learn a bit more about Haiti.

EDIT - There seems to be something of a smear campaign going on against this book. The book was originaly published in 1994, and this edition came out in 2003. Therefore, the current happenings in Haiti are not mentioned in the book. One reviewer mentioned that Farmer is so rich because Aristide is lining his pockets. This reviewer is overlooking the fact that Farmer is one of the head doctors at one of the largest hospitals in the US (a post that pays a pretty penny), and teaches at Harvard (ditto), and does frequent speaking tours, is a published author, and much more. Farmer is also quite open about the fact that he lives in a tiny appartment in a very bleak area of Boston, and puts his tremendous earnings right back into Partners in Health.

66 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Uses of Haiti, Or what happens when we wage war on the poor January 29, 2004

By Akenji

Format:Paperback

Dr. Paul Farmer has had incredible amounts of experience, close to 20 years, living and working for the poor people of Haiti. The key word here is poor, because regardless of what detractors like a fellow reviewer on this page might say, the plight of the poor people of Haiti has forever been slighted and undermined by subtle but draconian US policies. What Dr. Farmer exposes in Uses of Haiti, is the true nature of the war being waged against the poor of Haiti (and similar situations occur worldwide), and he uses meticulously researched details that are not very well known to the general public. I would rather take the word of a medical anthropologist who for close to two decades has been treating the poor people of rural Haiti for free over the word of someone who claims to have "been there" and endorses the right of a military junta to overtrhow a popularly elected president. Uses of Haiti is a riveting read from top to bottom and comes from someone 99.9% of people would agree has his heart in the right place i.e. alleviating the plight of the Haitian poor.