Customer Reviews

An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President

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This slim volumn is full of history that usually exists only between the lines in the mainstream press. It is written in a style that is casual and more like oratory or a musical piece that constanly returns to the main themes as the facts unfold rather than a 1000 page history textbook. A story not understood by most in the US, and a must for those wishing to fill in some of the blanks in their knowledge of US foreign policy. The questions raised are disturbing.

Consensus among our book club members was favorable toward Mr. Robinson's latest book. As most of us had never focused on Haiti and knew little about the country's history, An Unbroken Agony was great in that it provided a basic history which highlighted main players and key events. It also gave us an insightful, perhaps biased, account of Aristide's alleged ouster. Since reading the book, I personally am more enlightened about (1) Haitian history and its geography; (2) French, Spanish, and U.S. history; (3) the greatness of Toussaint L'Ouverture whose deeds should be more well-known and documented in history books; (4) the smelly politics and foreign policies of the U.S.; and (5) Aristide's struggle to improve the plight of his nation's people, primarily the lower class and disadvantaged. On the negative side, I wish Mr. Robinson had offered more detail on why the U.S. went to great lengths to rid Haiti of Aristide, i.e., more precise information naming specific corporations and other entities now benefiting from Aristide's absence. Also, I was left wondering why Aristide has not been more vocal in his exile. Why has he not written a book to tell us how and why he was forced to leave his country? Why is he not pleading his own case? Finally, everyone in the book club to a person was motivated/inspired to seek out more information on Haiti, which is a good thing.

Randall Robinson again displays his towering intellect, clear-eyed vision, and grasp of history, economics and power relationships. The ugly truths regarding the unrelenting American (and French) hostility toward Haiti are truths that the overwhelming majority of Americans cannot handle, and who therefore resort to willful ignorance. This book is a fascinating review of the kind of U.S. history that is not taught in the schools, nor covered by the media.

This book is a great book for anyone who wants to understand Haiti's 2004 coup and the events leading up to it. But it is even better for anyone who wants to understand U.S. foreign policy towards Haiti and other poor countries. It should be required reading in US high schools and colleges. As with all Mr. Robinson's books, it is written with passion and eloquence, from the perspective of someone who was there, with his eyes, ears and mind open.

I read An Unbroken Agony: Haiti from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President and found it interesting reading.

I also found it disturbing in two ways: First, I was troubled by the strong anti-US and anti-France approach. I was troubled by his strong emotions. Second, it disturbed me to realize that his anger at the US and France for kidnapping Aristide may be justified. The difficulty I had was in determining whether what he said was based on fact or emotion. I was forced to decide that while the account is very emotional and therefore likely to be slanted, it is also probably accurate.

The author was an eye witness in the Central African Republic and he did hear from those who talked with the President of that country about Aristide and his house arrest.

I had to conclude that the US and France were culpable of kidnapping a president of a sovereign nation because he posed some kind of a threat to the US? To France? Or was the threat to the elite of Haiti who didn't like his attempted reforms of a very corrupt society and government?

Haiti is one of many countries that U.S. citizens know very little about, though we should. We should know about Haiti because our country has been brutalizing it for generations, before us the French. Robinson gives his readers a harsh dose of the real world of Haiti's suffering which has been inflicted upon it by U.S. support of dictators Papa Doc & The Tontons Macoutes, overthrows and trade policies that have enslaved the nation. Recently, the U.S. military received some good PR for dropping off aid as the Haitians drowned in the wake of three powerful hurricanes; but what isn't spoken about is the larger context of Haiti's poverty, deforestation, and the problems already being created by climate change Refugees of the Blue Planet.
Fortunately, independent media efforts like "Democracy Now!" are providing critical analysis for anyone who is interested. The host Amy Goodman accompanied Robinson and Aristide as U.S. special forces swept him out of office Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup (Read and Resist). Also, humanitarians like Paul Farmer have educated countless people about the crushing poverty in Haiti, and how they can help Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (California Series in Public Anthropology, 4).
Haiti's problems, like the problems of so much of the Global South, are a reflection of the problem of empire - whether it's British, or Russian, or German, or U.S.-based. As any actual Christian knows, we need to dismantle military empires and build something better.
Another World is Possible: Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum

See also:
Aristide and the Endless Revolution
The Uses of Haiti (3rd Edition)
Hideous Dream
The Corporation
Left Turn

To quote from the book:
"Where the poor were concerned, the United States invariably opposed the efforts of the poor's own governments, whenever and wherever those governments tried in any serious structured way to ameliorate the poverty of their own people. If there has ever been a circumstance in which the Americans did not take the side of the rich in efforts to quash even modest reforms to help the poor, I do not know of it."

The plight of Haiti is undeserved, shameful and mostly the result of US intervention to keep the people poor and powerless. Well-written and compelling.

I sent the author an e-mail when I finished reading this book. And I will tell you like I told him. This is one of the best books I have read in quite sometime. Mr. Robinson is a voice for the people of Haiti. I admire people like him because he cares so much for which most people care so little.

When violent rebels descended on Port-au-Prince in 2004, and President Aristide left Haiti in a hurry, one big question was left hanging over the National Palace: did he run or was he kidnapped?
The theme of this book is starkly presented and aggressively argued: that Aristide, Haiti's only president democratically elected by the common people, was kidnapped by the United States on behalf of the mulatto elite, and spirited away to exile in Africa, thus ensuring continuation of an unjust social order that has prevailed in Haiti for generations.
Of course, Aristide's critics argue that the former priest fell into the corrupt ways of most of his predecessors. His supporters will say that the US could not countenance the surging popularity of a president whose genuine interests lay with the poor and oppressed.
What makes this book disturbing is that its arguments are convincing, and that a dispassionate reader might well be left thinking that America's continued interference in Haitian affairs is more to do with commercial self-interest than anything akin to altruism.
As recent troubles demonstrate, the agony of Haiti's poor seems never to end, and the country's social, political and economic woes seem to intensify by the day.
Left to its own devices, Haiti would almost certainly be just as big a disaster area as it is today, a country ravaged by natural calamities and corrupt politicians.But it's perhaps time it was left alone. Certainly, there is nothing to suggest that American interference has made things better.
Aristide was viewed by many as Haiti's last chance. But he isn't there anymore.

Purchased copies for every READING Mother that I know for Mother's Day.

A must read for those following TV evangelists claiming to know the source of Haiti's calamities.

If anyone has a list of other great books about Haiti please list.

Thanks for sharing Mr Robinson.