Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of HistorySilencing the Past is a thought-provoking analysis of historical narrative. Taking examples ranging from the Haitian Revolution to Columbus Day, Michel-Rolph Trouillot demonstrates how power operates, often invisibly, at all stages in the making of history to silence certain voices. "Makes the postmodernist debate come alive." --Choice "Trouillot, a widely respected scholar of Haitian history . . . is a first-rate scholar with provocative ideas . . . Serious students of history should find his work a feast for the mind." --Jay Freedman, Booklist "Elegantly written and richly allusive, . . . Silencing the Past is an important contribution to the anthropology of history. Its most lasting impression is made perhaps by Trouillot's own voice--endlessly agile, sometimes cuttingly funny, but always evocative in a direct and powerful, almost poetic way." --Donald L. Donham, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute "A sparkling interrogation of the past. . . . A beautifully written, superior book." --Foreign Affairs "Silencing the Past is a polished personal essay on the meanings of history. . . . [It] is filled with wisdom and humanity." --Bernard Mergen, American Studies International "An eloquent book." --Choice "Written with clarity, wit, and style throughout, this book is for everyone interested in historical culture." --Civilization "A beautifully written book, exciting in its challenges." --Eric R. Wolf "Aphoristic and witty, . . . a hard-nosed look at the soft edges of public discourse about the past." --Arjun Appadurai |
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academic actors African Alamo American archives Ardouin Beaubrun Ardouin become Benot Brazil Caribbean celebrations century Chicago Christophe's Christopher Columbus claim colonial Columbian Columbus Day Columbus's context cultural death debate Dessalines Diderot discourse discovery Disney's Domingue empirical Europe European facts former slaves France French gens de couleur guild Haiti Haitian Revolution happened Henry Christophe historical narrative historical production historiography Holocaust ideological independence Indians intellectual Jews l'histoire landfall Latin America leaders Leclerc Louverture Louverture's Marc Ferro matter memory Ménard Michel-Rolph Trouillot Milot mulatto narrator Negroes Noirs October 12 palace Paris past philosophical Pierre plantation planters political Port-au-Prince Potsdam practice professional historians quadricentennial quincentennial racism resistance revolutionary Saint-Domingue Sans Souci sides of historicity significance silences slavery Souci sources Spain Spanish story Styron suggests tion tory Toussaint Louverture troops Tzvetan Todorov United University Press unthinkable West Western writing York Yves Benot