How the Other Half Lives
Start Publishing LLC · Print & ebook · July 18, 2013
A History pick for readers exploring How the Other Half Lives.
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- A landmark of photojournalism, this account brings the realities of 1880s New York slums into view.
- Themes
- Urban poverty, Immigrant hardship, Social reform
- Genres
- Poverty & Homelessness, Urban Life, Photo Essays & Documentary
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
20 Years at Hull HouseJane Addams40% matchShares Urban Life
Five BulletsElliot Williams40% match
The Murder of Helen JewettPatricia Cline Cohen50% match
Christ Stopped at EboliCarlo Levi40% match
There Are No Children HereAlex Kotlowitz49% matchShares Poverty & Homelessness and Urban Life
RatsRobert Sullivan51% match
Rogues' GalleryJohn Oller50% match
For younger readers: Kids at Work, Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London, Migrant Mother
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
How the Other Half Lives was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. It served as a basis for future muckraking journalism by exposing the slums to New York City's upper and middle class. How The Other Half Lives quickly became a landmark in the annals of social reform.
Continue reading
Riis documented the filth, disease, exploitation, and overcrowding that characterized the experience of more than one million immigrants. He helped push tenement reform to the front of New York's political agenda, and prompted then-Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to close down the police-run poor houses. Roosevelt later called Riis "the most useful citizen of New York". Riis's idea inspired Jack London to write a similar exposé on London's East End, called People of the Abyss.
Witnessing the City
A landmark of photojournalism, this account brings the realities of 1880s New York slums into view.
Come here for
- A close look at urban poverty through an early work of photojournalism
- The history of journalism meeting social reform
Expect
- A stark record of filth, disease, exploitation, and overcrowding
- A view into the conditions that helped put tenement reform on the agenda
Where it sits
| Poverty & Homelessness | 45% |
|---|---|
| Photo Essays & Documentary | 37% |
| Urban Life | 37% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- 19th-Century America
- Authors
- Jacob A. Riis
- Publisher
- Start Publishing LLC
- Published
- July 18, 2013
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Urban poverty · Immigrant hardship · Social reform
- Reading lane
- 19th-Century America