Liberal historians act as if civilization and advanced nations represent some cosmic accident. To them, successful nations are just lucky, and but for luck one people could be either illiterate or poor, or cultured and rich. Yet the world has abundant examples of ecologically rich nations that are culturally and economically destitute and of resource-poor nations that are culturally enlightened and economically rich. Nations can be found with long histories that are now either progressive or backward. Short national histories can herald great success or abject failure. Societies can be religiously devout or ambivalent. There are poor devout nations, rich agnostic ones and vice-versa. Constitutions and laws on the books do not really tell us how free or law-abiding a nation is, but race usually tells us a lot. There are relatively isolated nations that are wealthy and advanced, and ones in the thick of cultural and economic traffic that are poor.

Is there one sizable well-run all-Black nation where the crime rate is low, the schools good, the government free and uncorrupted? Is there one with high longevity rates and low infant mortality, or with low illiteracy and a high standard of living?

The impact of race on history and contemporary social conditions can be well illustrated by comparing two nations: Haiti, and Iceland. Iceland sits inside the Arctic Circle. It has perhaps the most inhospitable geography of any populated nation on Earth. It stands isolated and endures winter conditions that last almost three-quarters of the year. No forests grow there, and thus it has no wood or paper products. There is no oil, no natural gas and no coal. Much of the land is volcanic desert and glaciers so foreboding that the U.S. space program did training there for their lunar landings. Farming is almost impossible because of the rock-filled soil, snow-covered mountains and short growing season. Few tourists visit the little island in the north Atlantic. It's a land of clouds, little sunshine, and long winter nights. Iceland's only resource is the fish they harvest on the great cod banks in competition with many other nations. They also have natural volcanic geysers that they ingeniously use to heat their homes and businesses.

Compare this island to the island of Hispaniola and the nation of Haiti, the second oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere. It is a huge island rich beyond the dream of a poet's fancy. Warm and beautiful, with beaches, mountains and clear waters, the topography is a tourist's fantasy. It is one of the gateway islands to the Caribbean, the United States, Mexico and South America - a natural place for thriving international trade. Thick forests and rich mineral resources bless the island. The seafood in the waters around the nation is plentiful and valuable. Mild weather gives the island long and productive growing seasons and lush soil.

In the 18th century Haiti was the largest sugar producer in the world. Universities and other centers of higher learning kept the island abreast of the world's progress and advances, and it became one of the richest of France's overseas possessions - richer than any of the 13 original American colonies. Haiti came to be called the Jewel of the Caribbean.

All this ground to a halt in the late 1790s, when the egalitarianism introduced by Whites fresh from the French Revolution precipitated a Black revolt in which, ultimately, the Black revolutionaries murdered nearly every one of the 40,000 White men, women, and children on the island. In the 200 years since the revolution, under one corrupt and tyrannical regime after another, Black Haiti has become one of the most dangerous, superstitious, and backward places on Earth. The vast majority of the people are illiterate, and less than 3 percent finish primary education. It has one of the lowest per capita incomes on Earth, endemic crime and drug problems, wholesale destruction of the environment, negligible education, high infant mortality and primitive health care, and its dominant religion is voodoo.