I worried that I'd learn little and devote a great deal of time to the activity. Well, I was totally wrong on the first score. Farmer has a great deal of material from which I learned, and I even learned by formulating my objections to things which I found wanting. On the second score, it turned out as I expected. In the end, it is a tool of current political ideology more than an historical analysis.
Farmer writes a powerful book, well-documented and illustrated with many aptly chosen examples.
But, while I believe that the evidence presented is mainly true, there is a great deal left out, and what is left out will challenge the thesis itself. The thesis, as I read it, and as the title suggests, is that Haiti has served the purposes of the United States and the international community. Thus to understand Haiti one must understand the uses which Haiti serves for those international forces. This is all true, and something that one must emphasize in order to get a clear picture of Haiti. But, it is the next step in Farmer's logic which troubles me greatly.