In Summer 2000, Susan Buck-Morss published an essay in Critical Inquiry
titled “Hegel and Haiti”. This article quickly developed into a real
cultural phenomenon, attracting both high praise and sharp criticism. In
response to this criticism, Morss authored a second essay, “Universal
History”. The two essays were subsequently published together as Hegel, Haiti and Universal History (2009),
which is soon to be published in an Arabic edition by the ACRPS. Part 2
of “Universal History” will be published in a later issue of Ostour. Both
essays span multiple fields: they are a sort of
historical-philosophical enquiry, or history written as political
philosophy, which analyse and critique the rationalist, humanist and
universalist slogans of the enlightenment without trying to erase them.