The Black Jacobins

This book is nothing short of brilliant. C.L.R James writes with a clarity and flair that makes the Haitian Revolution come to life. His writing includes exceptional primary sources and letters directly from the events. And his portrayal of Toussaint Louverture is like reading a novel where you find yourself constantly in awe of the main character. James drives home the importance of the masses at all times throughout this work. This is not only an exceptional work on the Haitian Revolution, but also one of the most enticing and exciting history books I've read to-date

I was really eager to listen to this audiobook because it's a history book written from a Marxist perspective and about an area of history I know very little about.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to follow because every character has a French name, every city or region has a French name and is phrased in a way focusing on individual action, not on groups of people. It was quite confusing as an audiobook for me.
Maybe could have been easier to follow as a regular book or if I had some basic understanding of the names and places and people from my schooling. But proletariat slave revolts don't seem important enough to mention.
The most compelling quote I found in the book was: “The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental.” This is similar to another quote I read as a tweet a few months ago: “Intersectionality without class consciousness is just Identity politics. Class consciousness without intersectionality is class reductionism. We need both. We have the same enemy.”
I would only recommend this book to someone who's got some surface-level understanding of what happened and doesn't mind listening to French names nonstop.

This book is a classic, and reading it, it's obvious why. The raw power of the writing is matched with the author's passion for the subject, and it illuminates an all-too-forgotten period of history. Reading this book will completely change how you look at colonialism, the Enlightenment, and the birth of modern western politics, because all are deeply tied into the Haitian Revolution. This part of history is often ignored and overlooked, and that's a travesty. To understand the French Revolution, you must learn about the Haitian Revolution. To understand colonialism, you must understand the Haitian Revolution. To understand the birth of America, you must understand the Haitian Revolution. This book is essential.