Race, Reality, and Realpolitik

Jeffrey Sommers is professor of political economy and public policy in African and African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.Patrick Delices holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and an MPA from Columbia University.

• Chapter 1 Perceptions of Haiti: Antebellum America Before United States EmpireChapter 2 Marketing Uplift and Empire: Popular Magazines during the Modern Colonial EraChapter 3 Hemispheric Imperative to Invest: Haiti and the Bulletin of the Pan American UnionChapter 4 “Shame and Evil” in Haiti: Power Elite Perspectives on Haiti and EmpireChapter 5 Woodrow Wilson and Haiti: Liberty, Order, Race, and American Empire

Jeffrey Sommers delivers a powerful and highly instructive work. The successful slave revolt in Haiti, culminating in 1804, was an event of historic significance, establishing the first free society in the western hemisphere. Haitians have been bitterly punished by the great powers ever since for that achievement. Woodrow Wilson’s invasion a century ago was another severe blow, from which Haiti has yet to recover. This compelling study, drawing together many diverse factors and using a rich variety of primary sources, not only provides new and valuable insights into the events and their background, but also into the making of imperial policy and its beneficiaries.