"A good history of a sordid intervention that submitted a people to autocratic rule and did little for economic development." —
The New York Times
"From Schmidt we get the full details . . . of the brutal racist practices inflicted on the Haitians for nearly all of the nineteen-year American presence in the country." —
American Historical Review
"The only thoroughgoing study of one of the more discreditable American interventions overseas." —J
ournal of Interdisciplinary History
"Should become the standard work on the subject. . . .required reading for specialists in Caribbean studies and U.S.-Latin American relations." —
Choice
"A valuable addition to Latin American and U.S. historiography." —
Library Journal
"Schmidt sees American racism, bondholders cultures, the technocratic side of Progressivism, and the National City Bank looting of Haiti as the factors motivating Wilson's 1915 invasion....As a detailed case study in an exceptional manifestation of U. S. imperial control the book will attract a readership beyond students of Caribbean history." —
Kirkus
"An important and well-documented account....an interesting case study in twentieth-century imperialism. Schmidt sees the occupation of Haiti as part of a general tendency in American foreign policy...Schmidt analyses in detail the mechanics of the invasion, and discusses the actions, attitudes, and policies of the  U.S. administration....A model of academic elegance."
—Caribbean Studies
"All the more convincing because the author has used previously inaccessible archive materials." —
Journal of American History