The twentieth-anniversary edition features a foreword by Hazel V. Carby on the impact of Trouillot's work on postcolonial studies.
Silencing the Past is a meditation on the characteristics of power and how it influences the creation and recording of histories.
Spanning examples from The Alamo and Christopher Columbus to the position of the Haitian Revolution in the collective memory of Western society, Trouillot analyzes conventional historical narratives to understand why certain parts of history are remembered when others are not.
"[3] In the twentieth-anniversary edition, the foreword by Hazel V. Carby describes the book's utility as a pedagogical tool, offering an introduction to historical analysis for students.
[4] In an article for the Journal of Haitian Studies, Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall notes that Silencing the Past is regarded as Trouillot's most famous work.