Overview

"Once the most lucrative European colony in the Caribbean, Haiti has long been one of the most divided and impoverished countries in the world. In the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas, or ""the flood,"" sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial rule. After winning a landslide election victory, in 1991 the Lavalas government led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a bloody military coup. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why Aristide's enemies in Haiti, the US and France made sure that his second government, elected with another overwhelming majority in 2000, was toppled by a further coup in 2004. The elaborate international campaign to contain, discredit and then overthrow Lavalas at the start of the twenty-first century was perhaps the most successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. Its execution and its impact have much to teach anyone interested in the development of today's political struggles in Latin America and the rest of the post-colonial world."

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9781844672349

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Reviews

This riveting and deeply-informed account should be carefully read by those who recognize that Haiti's tragic history is a microcosm of imperial savagery and heroic resistance Noam Chomsky, MIT Finally, we have an honest rendering of how the Haitian poor sought to advance their struggle for dignity at the close of the twentieth century and of the forces, within Haiti and without, that have stymied their struggle. Damming the Flood offers the first accurate analysis of the past two decades. Peter Hallward's new book is the best study of its kind, and it is required reading for anyone who seeks to know Haiti and to understand the forces arrayed against all those who believe in genuine democracy. Paul Farmer, MD, Harvard University

Author Information

Peter Hallward teaches at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. He is the author of several books including Absolutely Postcolonial, Badiou: A Subject to Truth, Out of This World: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Creation, and Damming the Flood.

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