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    How the Other Half Lives
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    How the Other Half Lives
    Unavailable
    How the Other Half Lives
    Ebook383 pages6 hours

    How the Other Half Lives

    By Jacob Riis

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Jacob Riis was one of the very few men who photographed the slums of New York at the turn of the century, when as many as 300,000 people per square mile were crowded into the tenements of New York's Lower East Side. The filth and degradation made the area a hell for the immigrants forced to live there. Riis was one of those immigrants, and, after years of abject poverty, when he became a police reporter for the New York Tribune, he exposed the shameful conditions of life with which he was all too familiar. Today, he is best remembered as a compassionate and effective reformer and as a pioneer photo-journalist.
    In How the Other Half Lives, New Yorkers read with horror that three-quarters of the residents of their city were housed in tenements and that in those tenements rents were substantially higher than in better sections of the city. In his book Riis gave a full and detailed picture of what life in those slums was like, how the slums were created, how and why they remained as they were, who was forced to live there, and offered suggestions for easing the lot of the poor. Riis originally documented all his studies with photographs. However, since the half-tone technique of photo reproduction had not been perfected, the original edition included mainly reductions in sketch-form of Riis' photographs. These could not begin to capture what Riis' sensitive camera caught on film. The anguish and the apathy, the toughness and the humiliation of the anonymous faces is all but obliterated in the sketches. This Dover edition includes fully 100 photographs, many famous, and many less familiar, from the Riis collection of the City Museum, and their inclusion here creates a closer conformity to Riis' intentions than did the original edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateApr 27, 2012
    ISBN9780486129921
    Unavailable
    How the Other Half Lives
    Author

    Jacob Riis

    Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a Danish-American police reporter, newspaper journalist, photographer, and reformer. He wrote about the social and environmental effects of the urban slum and its challenges to survival.

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    Reviews for How the Other Half Lives

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      For a book about social reform that is 122 years old it was quite interesting. It was conflicting in the author's portrayal of the poor and wanting change yet he was still very judgmental and racist against immigrants. He was an immigrant. A good historical read for some eye-opening about how things have changed and yet not really changed in 122 years.
    • 5/5
      Yes an excellent look at forgotten aspects of world history! For the other readers who think it racist then they merely look with the benefit of hindsight through a politically correct lense! One cannot judge past generations on the woke snowflake standards we have today.
    • 4/5
      All Liberals and those who profess to be humanitarians need to read this book. Riis, a reporter for a New York newspaper, investigated the tenements and the society that calls them home. This book is the result. It shows unquestionably that government involvement is not benign, that when taking on the problem of inadequate housing by building newer facilities, only multiplies the problem by attracting the same clientele as had existed. In other words, tenements don't cause poverty, tenements are occupied by those who, for various reasons, refuse to improve their condition. The Germans were able to raise themselves out of the tenements, so too the Jews and Italians. Their culture demands improvement of one's social status. There are others who exist by living off the government's largess. Interestingly, when the tenements were torn down and the government was not involved, the crime rate decreased dramatically. Tell your emasculated, professional humanitarian friends that they should read this book!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      The most racist book I've read. Entirely condescending and patronizing. The raw data is interesting, the description of the living conditions mind blowing, but the criticisms leveled at other cultures are painful to read. It made me think of an old National Lampoon guide to ethnicities from the 1970s or 80s, except that it was serious. Sante, in the introduction, claims that Riis is not so bad as other writers of the time and that may be, but it was jarring, nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      Riis' book is an in depth look into poverty in the U.S. in early twentieth century America, and the photographs and statistics strike a heavy impact. The organization makes it simple to look to a particular type of poverty or demographic, so for research purposes, this is a great resource that adds another level to what we generally know of U.S. history from this time period. At the same time, reading the book straight through is fairly dry, and becomes somewhat repetitive at times. For the full effect, unless you're simply reading for fact and history and not really looking to engage with the material, I'd suggest reading chapter by chapter with breaks. On a separate note, while this edition is ideal because of the photographs, there are far too many typos to make it an ideal edition text-wise. If careful editing is one of your pet peeves (as it is mine), you might consider reading a different text, and just perusing this one for the documentary photography alone.Still, if you're interested in the subject, this is a worthwhile resource.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Exceptional early look at immigrants and their condition.