Sepinwall traces what became of Silencing the Past after 1995. Trouillot's book examined how historical narratives are produced and how the writing of history is tied to power -- not the tired line that victors write history, but an analysis of the gap between what occurred and what is said to have occurred, of archives that mute the defeated, and of habits of mind that keep certain events from registering at all.

The essay shows that the book was no immediate success and gathered its authority slowly, and it pays particular attention to the chapter treating the Haitian Revolution as unthinkable history.

Sepinwall's own case is that the reception has been uneven. Some of Trouillot's propositions are now common ground; others have been passed over or turned to uses he would have rejected. She is sharpest on non-Haitian scholars who cite the essay approvingly while writing about the Revolution in ways it was meant to rule out.