"Eduardo Grüner's remarkable book is not only a brilliant discussion of slavery and the Haitian Revolution; it is also a profound philosophical and critical reflection, from the viewpoint of the slaves' rebellion, on the contradictions of Eurocentric Enlightenment and of Western (capitalist) modernity."
Michael Löwy, author of The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx
"What is revolutionary today about the Haitian Revolution, in which African slaves brought Napoleon's army to ignominious defeat? How does it fundamentally challenge ways of thinking not just about modern history, but about thinking itself? Read Grüner's book to find the answers to these pertinent questions."
Michael Taussig, Professor, Columbia University, Class of 1933
Preface
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Category of Slavery and Modern Racism
Elements for an Ethno-Historical Sociology of Ancient and Modern Slavery
The Question of Racism
Racism in "Early Modernity"
The Traces of Time
A Better World?
Chapter 2: The Rebellion of the (Slave) Masses and the Haitian Revolution
On the Combined and Uneven
From Particularism to (False) Universalism: A "Philosophical Revolution"
The (Uncertain) Logic of Slave Rebellions
The Rest of the Americas
Enter Saint-Domingue/Haiti
A Portrait of Saint-Domingue/Haiti in 1791
An Excursus on Vodou and its Revolutionary Character
The Social Complexities of Saint-Domingue
The Confused Dynamic of the Revolution
The Meaning(s) of the Haitian Revolution
On "Creative" Violence
Chapter 3: The Disavowed "Philosophical Revolution": From Enlightenment Thought to the Crisis of Abstract Universalism
Shadows in the Enlightenment: Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Slavery
Slavery without Scare Quotes: Between Hegel and Marx
The Black Enlightenment: The Haitian "Constitutional Revolution"
The Difficulties of Theorizing (Haitian) Revolution
Literature and Art Have Their Say
Epilogue
Eduardo Grüner is a sociologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Buenos Aires. He was awarded the Argentine National Literary Prize in 2011 for the original Spanish version of this book.