Trouillot's Silencing the Past

I was very intrigued by Trouillot's approach to his topic.  I have never approached history in the way of looking at the voids which are created when narratives is written or facts are collected.  It is a unique take on someting that is usually very structured.  Townsend does not acknowledge history silences in the same way Trouillot does.  He certainly creates silences by not mentioning the contribution to history by non-white or women historians.  While Trouillot's subject is not necessarily about that either, he does acknowledge the fact that certain groups of people are often left out of the historical record and that it is a great thing when people do use these sources.  He states, "The turn toward hitherto neglected sources (e.g., diaries, images, bodies) and the emphasis on unused facts (e.g. facts of gender, race, and class, facts of the life cycle, facts of resistance) are pathbreaking developments." He is praising those who remember to look for those sources that are usually overlooked but are valuable and insightful sources.  Townsend could have made more of an effort to include those women and non-white historians who have made a great contribution to the creation of the subject of history that we know today.  As we pointed out in class, Townsend does nod to some women who were involved but his points were so brief that one has to wonder why he mentions them at all.  It only makes the reader wonder if there is more information about these people and if they are so significant to have been mentioned here why are they not mentioned more in-depth.  By mentioning them however briefly, Townsend created a void of silence in those historians' histories.