To augment Howard's thread about articles relating to Bagster Phillips:
In reconstructing historical events from the perspective of individuals who were active in their progress, it is essential that the biographer researches the aspects of a person's life that were not directly connected to the subject of interest. It is only then that the whole picture emerges to explain the actions or opinions of that person at the moment chosen to depict. To remain focused and on topic, that vast amount of research is not added to the text, but is in the writer's mind as he develops his character for the reader's understanding of this segment of a person's life.
History is not just facts and figures. Such delineations never really explain the real context necessary to any understanding and only leave a shallow impression of what actually happened. Human beings make events. Their previous experiences and their personalities, along with their interactions with others are the essence of each page in time. It is what brings the past to the present in a way that we - at this remove - can connect and relate.
My recent article about Bagster Phillips and the medical evidence in the Whitechapel murders is a long one... and this is after I had edited it twice. Relating the activities of someone so prominent as Dr. Phillips in a complete manner is something that is difficult to compress, without compromising the cataloging of his activities and his interactions with others that made the events unfold. However, I had to leave out a lot of material. In this thread I would like to share some of that information with you about this truly remarkable but little understood man as well as some of the medical evidence in general, presented by himself and others. If there is any real key to this mystery, which interest we all commonly share, this is where it lies.
I will begin in the next post with my personal reflection of George Bagster Phillips and his character.
In reconstructing historical events from the perspective of individuals who were active in their progress, it is essential that the biographer researches the aspects of a person's life that were not directly connected to the subject of interest. It is only then that the whole picture emerges to explain the actions or opinions of that person at the moment chosen to depict. To remain focused and on topic, that vast amount of research is not added to the text, but is in the writer's mind as he develops his character for the reader's understanding of this segment of a person's life.
History is not just facts and figures. Such delineations never really explain the real context necessary to any understanding and only leave a shallow impression of what actually happened. Human beings make events. Their previous experiences and their personalities, along with their interactions with others are the essence of each page in time. It is what brings the past to the present in a way that we - at this remove - can connect and relate.
My recent article about Bagster Phillips and the medical evidence in the Whitechapel murders is a long one... and this is after I had edited it twice. Relating the activities of someone so prominent as Dr. Phillips in a complete manner is something that is difficult to compress, without compromising the cataloging of his activities and his interactions with others that made the events unfold. However, I had to leave out a lot of material. In this thread I would like to share some of that information with you about this truly remarkable but little understood man as well as some of the medical evidence in general, presented by himself and others. If there is any real key to this mystery, which interest we all commonly share, this is where it lies.
I will begin in the next post with my personal reflection of George Bagster Phillips and his character.
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