Hallie Rubenhold: The Problem with Great Men (2020 Event)

Of the five women who died in the Autumn of 1888 at the hands
of Jack the Ripper, the most salient thing that has remained in
the public imagination has been the brutal manner of their
murders. While the identity of the murderer has been the
subject of relentless, salacious speculation, only now have the
stories of those who were killed been told.


Hallie Rubenhold’s landmark publication, The Five, reconstructs
the lost lives of Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols, Annie Chapman,
Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. So
compelling is Rubenhold’s book that it won last year’s Baillie
Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.


In this event redorded for the 2020 Book Festival, Rubenhold
discusses a new essay, The Problem with Great Men, commissioned
by Edinburgh International Book Festival as a follow-up to The
Five, with support from Baillie Gifford and the Baillie Gifford
Prize for Non-Fiction.


Many people are calling into question the histories handed down
to us by our ancestors. With statues of so-called ‘great men’
being torn down, how can we celebrate ordinary people who –
like the Ripper’s victims – have routinely been airbrushed out
of history? Rubenhold discusses her ideas with Scottish
broadcaster Sheena McDonald.


Please note: there is no PDF download of Rubenhold’s
new essay, as mentioned in the event.