Peter Hallward sets out to explain why the removal of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991 provoked international outrage while his removal in 2004 met near silence. His answer runs through the decade between: sustained misrepresentation in the press, foreign-funded democracy promotion channelled to opposition groups, and the rebuilding of an armed force out of former soldiers and paid gangs. Interviews with Haitian activists, politicians and Aristide himself anchor a portrait of Fanmi Lavalas as a network of neighbourhood cells whose organisers earned standing through years of local work. Hallward is candid about the weaknesses, the reliance on one man's charisma, the infiltration by opportunists and former Macoutes, and a police and palace guard the president never controlled. What the second coup targeted, he concludes, was that popular organisation, and containing it required making the overthrow look like a rescue.