"Yveline Alexis zooms in on Charlemagne Péralte to show the ways in which cacos resistance to the US Occupation of 1915-1934 continues to loom large in Haitian imagination, at home and abroad. In the process, she charts and retraces his living memory as a revolutionary, martyr, and symbol of defiance in the Black Republic's ongoing battle for liberation. Haiti Fights Back looks backward to remind us why Black refusal matters now more than ever!"
~Gina Athena Ulysse, author of Because When God Is Too Busy: Haiti, me & THE WORLD
"Haiti Fights Back demonstrates all that is to be gained when Haitian voices, perspectives and experiences are privileged in the telling of Haitian history. Haitian resistance to the US occupation was swift, innovative, and constant. With her narration of Péralte’s life and legacy, Yveline Alexis offers a new path forward for engaging with the historical record."
~Nadève Ménard, co-editor of The Haiti Reader: History, Culture, Politics
~The Page 99 Test
~Lacaye Enterprises Tele Lacaye show
"My book of the year is Haiti Fights Back, by Yveline Alexis (Rutgers), a brilliant study of Haitian collective resistance to the American occupation (1915– highlights the role of the caco (guerrilla) leader Charlemagne Péralte, a remarkable figure who inspired and mobilized popular opposition to the American military presence, challenging the occupying forces’ brutality and racism, and expressing the Haitian people’s humanity and dignity through an array of contentious political actions, ranging from symbolic and rhetorical interventions to demonstrations and military operations. Written with sensitivity and verve, and steeped in ground-breaking archival scholarship, this is history at its most captivating: it tells a powerful story which draws out the courage and patriotism of ordinary Haitian men and women, underscores the vitality of their revolutionary tradition, and offers a timely historical perspective on this year’s defeat of the American empire in Afghanistan."
~Times Literary Supplement
~New Books Network: New Books in Caribbean Studies
