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alexanderjamie's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Trouillot’s Silencing the Past is a decent look into how history’s participants, modern historians, and power influence our understanding of the past. Reconciling positivist and constructionist views of history, Silencing the Past is certainly a good read for anyone interested in History and Historiography.
jaredwill_'s review
5.0
A really insightful discourse on how the things we choose to discuss silence others.
History is about choosing what is worthwhile and what is inconsequential. It's these choices that mean even well-educated people don't know about Juneteenth, or Black Wall Street, or Zoot Suit Riots or Stonewall or any number of things that don't affect white people. When we choose (as it's always a choice) to chronicle white history other things must be left out.
History is about choosing what is worthwhile and what is inconsequential. It's these choices that mean even well-educated people don't know about Juneteenth, or Black Wall Street, or Zoot Suit Riots or Stonewall or any number of things that don't affect white people. When we choose (as it's always a choice) to chronicle white history other things must be left out.
peculiarly_reading's review against another edition
“We are never as steeped in history as when we pretend not to be.”
silences's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
every page is a banger. i can't believe this came in 1995--it feels like it should be decades older, not because it's dated but because it seems so obviously foundational. short and accessible but also rich enough to read over and over again. i'm not a historian, but trouillot reminds us that people and institutions other than historians can produce and use history. i found particularly useful:
1. the investigation into haiti's lost history, how the haitian revolution was literally unthinkable for most of the world, and therefore certain narratives about it were silenced even as the events unfolded and continued to be silenced after. this is obviously a loss, but i find it encouraging also, especially as an abolitionist--what is impossible and unthinkable today might not be that way tomorrow. also it's cool to imagine a world where columbus is forgotten and no longer useful for nationbuilding.
2. that a history can be "wrong," though "factual," because it is inauthentic and inadequate to the present moment. trouillot has a great critique of disney's planned plantation theme park that later thinkers have also extended to memorials, civil rights museums, etc. it also makes me wonder if u.s. left's defense to recent attacks on critical race theory and basic social studies curricula, which is often phrased as denying history or the past, is the right strategy... still working on that one.
1. the investigation into haiti's lost history, how the haitian revolution was literally unthinkable for most of the world, and therefore certain narratives about it were silenced even as the events unfolded and continued to be silenced after. this is obviously a loss, but i find it encouraging also, especially as an abolitionist--what is impossible and unthinkable today might not be that way tomorrow. also it's cool to imagine a world where columbus is forgotten and no longer useful for nationbuilding.
2. that a history can be "wrong," though "factual," because it is inauthentic and inadequate to the present moment. trouillot has a great critique of disney's planned plantation theme park that later thinkers have also extended to memorials, civil rights museums, etc. it also makes me wonder if u.s. left's defense to recent attacks on critical race theory and basic social studies curricula, which is often phrased as denying history or the past, is the right strategy... still working on that one.
revremishores's review
4.0
Really exceptional look at the ways all stories are made of silencing other potential stories. You'll look at history in a new way.
nhelregel's review
5.0
This book is a must-read for history majors. Trouillot skillfully probes the nature of history, truth, and fact. Anyone who reads, writes, or thinks critically about history should read this book.