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Black history, once shamefully neglected, is a constantly unfolding source of study, as scholars probe and revisit events and people whose impact and names have long been known but perhaps not fully or correctly understood. Two important book released this year are a must read. Acclaimed novelist Madison Smartt Bell has long been fascinated with the history of Haiti, and his biography, Toussaint Louverture (Pantheon, $27), reads like a engrossing historical novel. Bell seeks to provide a balanced look at this complicated historical figure. The Salem witch trials were not the only occasion in American history of hysteria leading to unwarranted killings. A less well-known example, fuelled by race rather than religion, is related by Mat Johnston in The Great Negro Plot (Bloomsbury, $19.95). — LATWP
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