This dissertation is a study of a society in crisis enmeshed in the vicious circle of socioeconomic stagnation. It seeks to point out the causes and effects of underdevelopment as they pertain to Haiti. Material presented comes from two general sources: field data collected by the author in Haiti and the analysis of documentation already available. Emphasis is placed on the major social institutions of Haitian society. The study begins by tracing the history of Haiti from the French colonial period to the emergence” of Haiti as the first Negro nation at the beginning of the 19th century. The republic in its first century experienced a series of crises which culminated in the American occupation of 1915-34. The “Social Revolution” of 1946 brought the first signs of a new sense of direction, which was corrupted with the inception of the Duvalier regime in 1957.
