Papa Doc: The Truth About Haiti Today

The definitive contemporary account of François Duvalier's rise and consolidation of power in Haiti from 1957 to 1967, written by a journalist who lived in Haiti for fourteen years and was eventually arrested and expelled by Papa Doc. The book's central argument is that Duvalier weaponized fear — through the Tonton Macoutes, vodou instrumentalization, and Cold War blackmail of the United States — to systematically dismantle every institution that could challenge him. Especially valuable for its extended analysis of how Duvalier drew on noirisme and the US occupation's legacy to construct a totalizing system of personal power.