Abbott — Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy Author: Elizabeth Abbott

Abbott — Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy Author: Elizabeth Abbott Published: 1988, McGraw-Hill Language: English Overview Abbott's book is the most comprehensive journalist account of the full Duvalier dynasty written in proximity to events. Published two years after Jean-Claude Duvalier's 1986 flight to France, it draws on hundreds of interviews Abbott conducted while living in Haiti as the sister-in-law of General Henri Namphy, who headed the post-Duvalier interim government. That personal access gives the book unusual texture — she has sources inside the palace, the army, the Catholic Church, the VSN, and among ordinary Haitians — while also creating a methodological problem she openly addresses: she had to actively resist painting Namphy as a monster to prove her objectivity.