How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York

by Jacob A. Riis

Overview

"How the Other Half Lives" is a chronicle of the conditions of abject poverty that the residents of the slums of New York at the end of the 19th century had to endure. Riis, who as an immigrant himself lived in these tenements on the lower east side of Manhattan, exposed the horrible conditions while working as a reporter for the New York Tribune. This book when first published in 1890 shed a much-needed light on the conditions of the poor. Presented here is a reproduction of that original 1890 edition with the numerous illustrations included in that volume.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420908503
Publisher:	Digireads.com Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	801,623
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914) was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. Additionally, as one of the most famous proponents of the newly practicable casual photography, he is considered one of the fathers of photography due to his very early adoption of flash in photography. While living in New York, Riis experienced poverty and became a police reporter writing about the quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the bad living conditions of poor people by exposing their living conditions to the middle and upper classes.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
A Note about the Text and Images
List of Map and Illustrations
 
PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: Framing the Poor – The Irresistibility of How the Other Half Lives
     The Flash: Jacob Riis Discovers Light
     The American Scene: The Search for Order
     How the Other Half Looks: Interpreting Riis’s View of Poverty
 
PART TWO.
     How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York
 
PART THREE. RELATED DOCUMENTS
     1. Jacob A. Riis, The Other Half and How They Live: Story in Pictures, November 9, 1891
     2. Six Illustrations from the 1890 Edition of How the Other Half Lives
 
Appendixes
     A Jacob A. Riis Chronology (1849–1923)
     Questions for Consideration
     Selected Bibliography
 
Index