A couple of interesting new books that couldn't be at more distant ends of the spectrum. In the first book, The Partnership , Philip Taubman’s fascinating, haunting book, “ The Partnership,” is about the drive to abolish nuclear weapons — and , implicitly, about why it will probably fail. Taubman, a former reporter and editor for The New York Times, tells the stories of five American national security m and arins who, in the twilight of the ir illustrious careers, stunned the ir peers by campaigning to scrap all nuclear arms. In the second book, Haiti: The Aftershocks of History , For a gripping narrative of that period, the re are few better places to turn than “Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution,” by Laurent Dubois, a Duke University scholar of the French Caribbean. Now Dubois has brought Haiti’s story up to the present in an equally well-written new book, “ Haiti: The Aftershocks of History ,” which is enriched by his caref...