The Construction of History in Guy Delisle’s “Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City”

“History is written by the victors.” Last summer, this aphorism appeared on national television when Attorney General William Barr responded to a question from CBS’s Catherine Herridge about the dismissing of charges against Michael Flynn by asking, “When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written?” Barr answered his own question with the following, “Well history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history.” He did say more, claiming that “fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It … upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.” In this post, I don’t want to look at the dismissal of charges against Flynn or whether or not Barr’s statement basically said, “We’re the victors and we write the history.” Rather, I just want to look at the phrase in relation to Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City.

Last post, I looked at one section of Delisle’s text where he showed that children do not start out hating one another. Today, I want to look at two sections where he explores the construction of history and how that construction works to either reinforce power or to oppose it. Delisle does this by detailing two two trips he made to Hebron…