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To the "Sons" of Dessalines and of Pétion: Radicalism and the Idea of a "New" Haiti
- Small Axe
- Duke University Press
- Volume 15, Number 3, November 2011 (No. 36)
- pp. 164-172
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This article examines the benefits and limitations of radicalism in Haiti during the post-US occupation period—1934-57. This critical and underexplored period, which Matthew J. Smith examines in his Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict, and Political Change, 1934-1957, brought about a reevaluation of political and economic ideas, laws, and relationships critical to the development of the nation-state. Additionally, post-US occupation was one of several key moments when a notion of a new Haiti proved fruitful for activists and thinkers of the day, who believed in the transformation of Haitian society. This idea of a "new" Haiti, which is rooted in nineteenth- and twentieth-century independence struggles and political and economic challenges, resounds in the current postearthquake era.