History Michel-Rolph Trouillot Summary

Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s was a Haitian historian and anthropologist. Trouillot uses anecdotes through 3

major historical events in history in this first chapter of his book. The Alamo, the Holocaust, and the

significant events of U.S. slavery are all the narratives for which Trouillot assesses. Through these events

he provides an analysis of actors, subjects and narrative. Trouillot argues that, “The vernacular use of the

word history thus offers us a semantic ambiguity: an irreducible distinction and yet an equally irreducible

overlap between what happened and that which is said to have happened.” (3) When speaking about power

Trouillot explains, “History is a story about power, a story about those who won.” (5) Trouillot is saying
I agree with Trouillot when telling the story of history that the power is in the hands of the victors because

they are the ones who survived and lived through trials and tribulations to bring light to their circumstances.

For example in “The Power in the Story” Trouillot explains that historians have many questions about the

Alamo stories. “When it became clear that the choice for the 189 Alamo occupants was between escape

and certain death at the Mexicans’ hands, Commandant William Barret Travis drew a line on the ground. He

then asked all those willing to fight to the death to cross it.” (10) Texas historians concluded that this was a

“good story” and did not matter whether the story was true. Because of the event of the Alamo and the

courage of the 189 men who defended the compound the story remains even though it may not be factual.

The details of history can be ambiguous or misconstrued when the narrative is created by multiple sources

or left unconfirmed as empirical
The three key themes of this article are power, empirical evidence, and language. Power is found

throughout the article the struggle and story of those who won. Power determines a position as well as

moral authority to silence others. It is the historian’s job to determine what the empirical truth is through

evidence presented. Trouillot explains the rules of language throughout the article in a culturally relative

way. The grammar in European language through colonies was “savagery” compared to those colonized

who saw the inferiority of non-whites. He says, “We now know that both sides were wrong; grammar

functions in all languages,” (Trouillot, 7). Language conveys information, whereas grammar uses rules in

formation of morphemes and syntax.

The language and context of history is open to more than one interpretation. It is the historian’s job to

distinguish what actually happened as opposed to stories told of what was believed to have happened. The

article is strong with detailed language, narrative and key concepts. Trouillot explains power and events of

history through a thorough analysis. However the article lacks thick description of the actual events to