Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewChelsea Stieber recovers the diverse landscape of political thought that developed in the postindependence era and persisted well into the 20th century. In doing so, Stieber’s carefully argued scholarship provides necessary nuance to our understandings of the internal dynamics of Haitian history and the manifold implications of Haiti’s political significance to the world. * Public Books *
An extraordinary work of revisionist Haitian historiography that offers us an incredible challenge: Chelsea Stieber’s intervention of the ‘paper war’ forces us to reconsider how the study of literature, and the very nature of critique, must remain central to our understandings of empire and abolition. With great aplomb,
Haiti’s Paper War powerfully upends the very myth of the Haitian Revolution’s singularity. -- Jeremy Matthew Glick, author of
The Black Radical TragicChelsea Stieber presents a powerful and cogently argued account of the crucial role of literary writing in shaping the independent nation of Haiti following the Haitian Revolution.
Haiti’s Paper War has significant ramifications for the larger field of literary and postcolonial studies— it speaks to the political work that informs the emergence of the ‘literary’ as a category. Stieber’s contribution is masterfully argued, relentlessly sharp, and insightful. A groundbreaking work. -- Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, author of
New World Drama: The Performative Commons in the Atlantic World, 1649–1849Writing in the precise, evocative language of a masterful chronicler, Stieber examines Haiti’s volatile post-independence struggles in governing. What makes this study particularly significant, and singular, is Stieber’s exhaustive examination of primary source material ... Through her critical analyses of writing as a tool to shape a nation, Stieber unveils the multilayered meanings of liberté that defined Haiti from its declaration of independence in 1804 to the mid-20th century. Essential.
* Choice *
A formidable study of Haiti’s political and literary evolution over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
-- Kaiama L. Glover, Barnard College * H-France Review *
Writing in the precise, evocative language of a masterful chronicler, Stieber examines Haiti’s volatile post-independence struggles in governing ... What makes this study particularly significant, and singular, is Stieber’s exhaustive examination of primary source material ... Essential. * Choice *
