How The Other Half Lives

Jacob Riis, a police reporter and an immigrant himself, was intimately acquainted with the squalid living conditions in New York's tenements. He published this book to expose the reality of the quotidian life of New York's poorest in the 1880's. This edition is fully illustrated.

Jacob Riis's classic is an open window into a world unknown to most. Originally published in 1890, this classic inditement of slum life remains an outstanding example of the value of investigative journalism and its potential to change the world for the better. Riis was one of the earliest "muck-rakers," which President Theodore Roosevelt defined as, "taking the rake to uncover the most unpleasant conditions in American society." In the case of Riis, the issue at hand was the dire predicament of thousands of immigrants living and working in horrendous conditions in the tenements of New York City in the late 1800s. How the Other Half Lives is a well thought out non-fiction work documenting the filth of the tenements, injustices of the sweatshops, and perils of child labor (among other wrongs) personally witnessed by Riis. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant from the city of Ribe, was one of fifteen children. Upon reaching adulthood, Riis first apprenticed as a carpenter in the city of Copenhagen. Discouraged by the lack of employment available, he immigrated to the United States in 1870 at the youthful age of 21. In New York, he eventually found his way to a career in journalism. After accepting a position with The New York News Association, he started writing articles that covered both the wealthy and the impoverished. Riis' career, and platform from which he could campaign for change, took a big step up when he took a job at the New York Tribune. In his new position, he began writing articles with the intent of enlightening the public on How the Other Half Lives. He decided to make it his purpose to explore and photograph this sad reality, hoping the exposure would help alleviate the terrible living and working conditions of the penniless. ¿Riis did just that by illuminating the filthy and revolting conditions of the "lower" classes to those in the upper and middle class best suited to make a difference. Riis' work was not in vain. His book led to decades of housing, sewer, and garbage collection improvements in the Lower East Side of New York City. This edition, which is illustrated with the photos he used, brings to life the experience of Jacob Riis as he uncovered the truth of How the Other Half Lives.

Jacob Riis, a police reporter and an immigrant himself, was intimately acquainted with the squalid living conditions in New York's tenements. He published this book to expose the reality of the quotidian life of New York's poorest in the 1880's. This edition is fully illustrated.

Jacob Riis's classic is an open window into a world unknown to most. Originally published in 1890, this classic inditement of slum life remains an outstanding example of the value of investigative journalism and its potential to change the world for the better. Riis was one of the earliest "muck-rakers," which President Theodore Roosevelt defined as, "taking the rake to uncover the most unpleasant conditions in American society." In the case of Riis, the issue at hand was the dire predicament of thousands of immigrants living and working in horrendous conditions in the tenements of New York City in the late 1800s. How the Other Half Lives is a well thought out non-fiction work documenting the filth of the tenements, injustices of the sweatshops, and perils of child labor (among other wrongs) personally witnessed by Riis. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant from the city of Ribe, was one of fifteen children. Upon reaching adulthood, Riis first apprenticed as a carpenter in the city of Copenhagen. Discouraged by the lack of employment available, he immigrated to the United States in 1870 at the youthful age of 21. In New York, he eventually found his way to a career in journalism. After accepting a position with The New York News Association, he started writing articles that covered both the wealthy and the impoverished. Riis' career, and platform from which he could campaign for change, took a big step up when he took a job at the New York Tribune. In his new position, he began writing articles with the intent of enlightening the public on How the Other Half Lives. He decided to make it his purpose to explore and photograph this sad reality, hoping the exposure would help alleviate the terrible living and working conditions of the penniless. ¿Riis did just that by illuminating the filthy and revolting conditions of the "lower" classes to those in the upper and middle class best suited to make a difference. Riis' work was not in vain. His book led to decades of housing, sewer, and garbage collection improvements in the Lower East Side of New York City. This edition, which is illustrated with the photos he used, brings to life the experience of Jacob Riis as he uncovered the truth of How the Other Half Lives.

2015 Reprint of 1957 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Originally published in 1890, this is the classic indictment of slum life, written by one of the most famous reformers of the nineteenth century. "How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York" explained not only the living conditions in New York slums, but also in the sweatshops in some tenements which paid workers only a few cents a day. The book explains the plight of working children; they would work in factories and at other jobs. Some children became garment workers and newsies (newsboys). The effect was the tearing down of New York's worst tenements, sweatshops, and the reform of the city's schools. The book led to a decade of improvements in Lower East Side conditions, with sewers, garbage collection, and indoor plumbing all following soon after, thanks to public reaction. Our edition reprints the 1957 edition, without the photo illustrations done mostly by Riis himself.

''How the Other Half Lives'' by Jacob Riis sheds fascinating light on how our immigrants in the 1800's lived in New York City. A must-read for Americans whose family has been in the U.S. for only a few generations, this book tells what it was really like in the slums. Whether Irish, Italian, Jewish, Chinese or Polish, German, Russian, hordes of refugees ended up in New York on the promise of a better life. Entrepreneurs lured poor people from Eastern Europe and contracted out their labor in sweat shops in the US. The laborers lived in tenements, which were dark, unventilated cages in blocks of buildings that rented for a surprising high rent to people who died by the thousands in the unsanitary conditions. The conditions described by Jacob Riis in this classic are heart-rending, especially the part about foundling babies (abandoned newborns). A cradle was put outside a Catholic Church and instead of a baby each night, racks of babies appeared. The Church had to establish foundling hospitals run by nuns, who persuaded the unwed or impoverished mothers to nurse the baby they gave up, plus another baby. The child mortality rate, especially in the ''back tenements'' or buildings built on to the back of others (dark and airless) was incredible. Riis also provides interesting information about the gangs of New York in ''How the Other Half Lived.''

First published in 1890, this is the author's study of the slums of New York, where Italians, Jews, "Bohemians", Blacks and Chinese struggled against the effects of poverty, alcohol and lack of education. The author's use of photographs to put faces to his stories is recognized as a landmark in photojournalism and as a result of his book, many reforms did take place to assist New York's poor.

First published in 1890, this is the author's study of the slums of New York, where Italians, Jews, "Bohemians", Blacks and Chinese struggled against the effects of poverty, alcohol and lack of education. The author's use of photographs to put faces to his stories is recognized as a landmark in photojournalism and as a result of his book, many reforms did take place to assist New York's poor.

''How the Other Half Lives'' by Jacob Riis sheds fascinating light on how our immigrants in the 1800's lived in New York City. A must-read for Americans whose family has been in the U.S. for only a few generations, this book tells what it was really like in the slums. Whether Irish, Italian, Jewish, Chinese or Polish, German, Russian, hordes of refugees ended up in New York on the promise of a better life. Entrepreneurs lured poor people from Eastern Europe and contracted out their labor in sweat shops in the US. The laborers lived in tenements, which were dark, unventilated cages in blocks of buildings that rented for a surprising high rent to people who died by the thousands in the unsanitary conditions. The conditions described by Jacob Riis in this classic are heart-rending, especially the part about foundling babies (abandoned newborns). A cradle was put outside a Catholic Church and instead of a baby each night, racks of babies appeared. The Church had to establish foundling hospitals run by nuns, who persuaded the unwed or impoverished mothers to nurse the baby they gave up, plus another baby. The child mortality rate, especially in the ''back tenements'' or buildings built on to the back of others (dark and airless) was incredible. Riis also provides interesting information about the gangs of New York in ''How the Other Half Lived.''

Jacob Riis, a police reporter and an immigrant himself, was intimately acquainted with the squalid living conditions in New York's tenements. He published this book to expose the reality of the quotidian life of New York's poorest in the 1880's. This ed

This famous journalistic record of the filth and degradation of New York's slums at the turn of the century is a classic in social thought and a monument of early American photography. Captured on film by photographer, journalist, and reformer Jacob Riis, more than 100 grim scenes reveal man's struggle to survive.

Since 1959 The John Harvard Library has been instrumental in publishing essential American writings in authoritative editions. Jacob Riis's pioneering work of photojournalism takes its title from Rabelais's Pantagruel: "One half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth; considering that no one has yet written of that Country." An anatomy of New York City's slums in the 1880s, it vividly brought home to its first readers through the powerful combination of text and images the squalid living conditions of "the other half," who might well have inhabited another country. The book pricked the conscience of its readers and raised the tenement into a symbol of intransigent social difference. As Alan Trachtenberg makes clear in his introduction, it is a book that still speaks powerfully to us today of social injustice. Except for the modernization of spelling and punctuation, the John Harvard Library edition of How the Other Half Lives reproduces the text of the first published book version of November 1890. For this edition, prints have been made from Riis's original photographs now in the archives of the Museum of the City of New York. Endnotes aid the contemporary reader.

Since 1959 The John Harvard Library has been instrumental in publishing essential American writings in authoritative editions. Jacob Riis's pioneering work of photojournalism takes its title from Rabelais's Pantagruel: "One half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth; considering that no one has yet written of that Country." An anatomy of New York City's slums in the 1880s, it vividly brought home to its first readers through the powerful combination of text and images the squalid living conditions of "the other half," who might well have inhabited another country. The book pricked the conscience of its readers and raised the tenement into a symbol of intransigent social difference. As Alan Trachtenberg makes clear in his introduction, it is a book that still speaks powerfully to us today of social injustice. Except for the modernization of spelling and punctuation, the John Harvard Library edition of How the Other Half Lives reproduces the text of the first published book version of November 1890. For this edition, prints have been made from Riis's original photographs now in the archives of the Museum of the City of New York. Endnotes aid the contemporary reader.

Illustrations, unspecified

Jacob Riis, a police reporter and an immigrant himself, was intimately acquainted with the squalid living conditions in New York's tenements. He published this book to expose the reality of the quotidian life of New York's poorest in the 1880's. This ed