The definitive modern biography of the great slave leader, military genius and revolutionary hero
Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has been a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford, since 1990. He has written extensively about French intellectual and cultural history; among his books are The Legend of Napoleon, In the Shadow of the General and How the French Think. He won the Prix du Memorial d'Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoleon for the first of these, a Prix d'Histoire du Senat for the second, the Grand Prix du Livre d'Idees for the third and the Wolfson History Prize and American Library in Paris Award for the fourth. In 2020, he became a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K.), the highest honour of the Republic of Mauritius.
The art of biography lies in using a life story to bring a
historical moment, as well as the society and culture that shaped
it, alive and to make it legible. And in this, Hazareesingh
succeeds admirably ... beautifully written and deeply engaging,
connecting the many remarkable writings by and about Louverture in
a symphonic narrative
*American Historical Review*
This is an erudite and elegant biography with a message that
resonates strongly in our own time
*David Cannadine*
remarkable ... the sharpest portrait yet of Louverture ... Black
Spartacus is a triumph. It takes a nearly impossibly complex
history and weaves it into a compelling and accurate narrative that
reads like fiction.
*Financial Times*
Black Spartacus is a tour de force: by far the most complete,
authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are
likely to have for a long time...an extraordinarily gripping
read.
*Guardian*
There is no better literary contribution to the year of Black Lives
Matter than Sudhir Hazareesingh's Black Spartacus, an authoritative
biography of Toussaint Louverture, who led the successful "slave
revolt" in Haiti and paved the way for Haitian independence.
*New Statesman Books of the Year*
an outstanding biography that breaks fresh ground and scrapes the
crust of folklore, and cliché, from the Toussaint story ...
scrupulous and absorbing ... After the summer of 2020, there could
hardly be a more urgent and valuable book.
*Arts Desk*
This thrilling, magisterial, superb biography, full of new
material, tells the extraordinary swashbuckling, bloodspattered,
inspirational life of Toussaint, brilliant leader of the Haitian
slave revolt against France
*Evening Standard*
Lustrous pearls ... scattered throughout Black Spartacus, turn this
detailed, blow-by-blow account of Toussaint's military exploits
into a dazzling, complicated narrative ... a breath-taking picture
of the decade of Toussaint's dream
*Spectator*
Sudhir Hazareesingh's engrossing new life is the story of an island
as well as a man ... Hazareesingh brings to the task a voracious
appetite for original sources and a discerning ear for those that
have the ring of truth. He also has a gift for tracing those
threads that reveal a previously unrecognised pattern in the fabric
of a life.
*Wall Street Journal*
With Black Spartacus, Sudhir Hazareesingh has produced the fourth -
and best - biography of Toussaint Louverture since the bicentenary
of Haitian independence ... The book deftly tackles the early
stages of the slave uprising and gives one of the most convincing
accounts yet of Toussaint's likely role in its opening moves.
*History Today*
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