[T]hat Free and French inspires so many questions is testament to its ambition, the provocative parallel at its heart, and the richness of Walsh's analysis. The book is another important reminder not only that the Haitian Revolution proved powerful inspiration for the rest of the Caribbean, even centuries later, but also that perhaps its most significant ideological victory was exposing ... Read morea fundamental truth: the colonies could never be free while French.July 2015
H-Empire
J.P.Walsh has produced for the nonspecialist reader an excellent analysis of the historiographical discourse on Toussaint Louverture and Aimé Césaire with a focus on the meaning(s) of decolonization in the late eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.
New West Indian Guide
Walsh . . . has opened a fascinating and fruitful line of study, not only of the writings of these two leaders, but also of the ambiguous colonial and postcolonial relationship between the French Republic and the French Caribbean. . . . Highly recommended.
Choice
Free and French in the Caribbean is . . . a valuable contribution to both the rapidly proliferating literature on the Haitian Revolution and the emerging revisionist appreciation of Césaire's intellectual and political project.
Small Axe
[This] book . . . is a wealth of information for researchers looking for a way to connect the contributions of several contemporary scholars in the field of postcolonial studies. Students and scholars of French Caribbean studies will find Free and French an incredibly valuable addition to their libraries.
Journal of Haitian Studies
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