Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History

By Paul Begg

Book Overview

'The clearest, most accurate, and most up-to-date account of the Ripper murders, by one of Britain's greatest and most respected experts on the "autumn of terror" in Victorian London.'

William D. Rubenstein, Professor of Modern History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

England in the 1880s was a society in transition, shedding the skin of Victorianism and moving towards a more modern age. Promiscuity, moral decline, prostitution, unemployment, poverty, police inefficiency... all these things combined to create a feeling of uncertainty and fear.

The East End of London became the focus of that fear. Here lived the uneducated, poverty-ridden and morally destitute masses. When Jack the Ripper walked onto the streets of the East End he came to represent everything that was wrong with the area and with society as a whole. He was fear in a human form, an unknown lurker in the shadows who could cross boundaries and kill.

Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History is not yet another attempt to identify the culprit. Instead, the book sets the murders in their historical context, examining in depth what East London was like in 1888, how it came to be that way, and how events led to one of the most infamous and grisly episodes of the Victorian era.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1405807121
• ISBN13: 9781405807128
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 398 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Great source of information for anyone studying the relationship between Jack the Ripper and the pre

This book has helped me allot in regards to a project I am working on. When one recognizes the significance between Jack the Ripper and the media, and it's part in ascending him from serial killer to Victorian icon, it is impossible to ignore this book. I highly recommend it.

Title says it all

I had to read this took for a Collage Class and have never enjoyed reading a "textbook" more. Paul Begg is a very entertaining author and gave alot of details concerning the Jack the Ripper Murders. At first he tells about the area of London called Whitechappel where it happened and then he talks about the Ripper Murders themselves. Not only does he give much detail about the Ripper Murders he talks about the Police investigation about it, as well as goes into detail about some of the people that historians and investigaters have claimed were Jack the Ripper. All in all a very comprehensive acount of the Jack the Ripper Murder case.