Florence Largiliiere is a researcher specialised in modern European history with a focus on the years 1870-1945 and Jewish communities. More specifically, I study the social and cultural history of these decades – I am especially interested in people’s history and their experiences of the post-war years, immigration, and nationalism. I recently started to work on the representation of history in popular culture and media, and I am now developing a project on the experiences and representations of veterans suffering from shell-shock and PTSD and their families.
I recently completed a PhD in Modern European History at Queen Mary, University of London under the direction of Professor Julian Jackson and Dr Daniel Wildmann. Entitled ‘Conservative Jews and their Nation: A Comparative Study of France, Germany, and Italy from 1918 to 1942’, it looked at how patriotic, assimilated Jews defined, presented, and adapted their Jewish and national identities in the interwar years and after the implementation of Racial Laws. Before that, I completed a Research Master in History at Sciences Po Paris (with Professor Marc Lazar) and an MPhil in Modern European History at the University of Cambridge (with Dr John Pollard).
You can find me on Twitter (@Firenze_L) and here: https://florencelargilliere.com
Episode plan – Ripper Street:
Presentation of the show (focus on the first couple of seasons)
When it starts (1889) – Jack the Ripper not at the centre
Main characters
Format of the shows in its first two seasons (“crime of the week”).
Diversity of themes covered (social inequalities, photography, prostitution, antisemitism, eugenics, immigration, etc.)
Context
London, and specifically Whitechapel, in the late Victorian era
= the largest city in the world.
East end = the Docklands and industries, the working poor
Whitechapel manufactured as a site of gothic horror, depravity, and danger but a very diverse neighbourhood
A word on the police force
= Who were they? What were the main issues at the time?
Historical (in)accuracy in Ripper Street
What the creators were looking for and how they worked with historians
Richard Warlow relying on historical consultants, but more to know what to keep or “throw away” as creators and story-tellers (example of Joseph Merrick’s episodes)
Give a few examples: Captain Jackson, Lobotomy, child trial
The role of dialogue => the “sound of the past”
How rich the show is for historians
= the diversity of topics covered (mentioned in the intro of this podcast)
Develop a couple of examples
Also: a lot of attention to details, to the environment (posters, clothes, streets, markets…)
But still, a very 21st century show, “CSI in the Victorian era” for Dr Jessica Hindes
East London in Ripper Street, an area in constant evolution
Scientific evolution
Always some degree of ambivalence, innovations/science could be used for better or worse
= the tube, photography and pornography, eugenics, electricity, psychosurgery
Political evolution
Especially Socialism and Communism
The Dock Strikes of 1889 in context, role of Jewish community here
Social evolution
Linked to this fear of class conflict and social disintegration
= role of charities and of the middle / higher classes but also local vigilance committees and patrols
New forms of entertainment = the music halls
Immigration and displaced population
Populations displaced by modernisation = cleaner / more hygienic housing, electricity, railways, tramways…
Immigration: from China (Opium)
Zoom on the Jewish community: overt antisemitism, an organised community but divisions between assimilated Jews and new comers from Eastern Europe (though not the most visible aspect in the show)

More informations on https://www.histoireenseries.com