Few countries in modern times have received so bad a press from foreign observers as Haiti. A small, rugged nation, born of an ex­ hausting and destructive revolution, its people poor, disease-ridden, illiterate, and erratically led, independent Haiti gives the impression of having drifted aimlessly (and painfully) for more than a cen­ tury. Observers from "more developed" lands have had a field day —and still have-bemoaning the evil consequences of a mass of Af­ rican slaves having turned upon their masters to destroy them and their works. It is still fashionable to allude to Haiti in deploring independence movements, racial desegregation, indigenous political leadership, and economic sovereignty. Yet far too little scholarship has been invested in delineating the national and international forces that have operated to keep Haiti poor and backward; nor has contemporary research led to sufficiently revealing comparisons between the social history of Haiti and that of its neighbors in the region.