The main themes in How the Other Half Lives, a work of photojournalism published in 1890, are the life of the poor in New York City tenements, child poverty and labor, and the moral effects of poverty .
What was the primary purpose of Jacob Riis how the other half lives?
His book, How the Other Half Lives (1890), stimulated the first significant New York legislation to curb poor conditions in tenement housing . It was also an important predecessor to muckraking journalism, which took shape in the United States after 1900.
What was Jacob Riis message?
He believed in the right of boys and girls to play as part of healthy early child development , and as an outlet for energies that could instead be turned to lives of vice or crime. One of Jacob Riis’s triumphs as a reformer was the creation of Mulberry Bend Park where crime-ridden housing had once been.
What is the author’s argument in how the other half lives? Riis shows that the majority of the poor are normal, hardworking people who simply face adverse circumstances . Riis argues that it is necessary to address urban poverty for both social and moral reasons.
What was Jacob Riis trying to expose?
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 .
How did Jacob Riis feel about the poor?
Reformers like Riis believed that poverty was the result of social and economic conditions , not moral weakness, and that reform efforts could help the poor.
How did Jacob Riis impact the progressive movement?
Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914) was a journalist and social reformer who publicized the crises in housing, education, and poverty at the height of European immigration to New York City in the late nineteenth century. ... Riis helped set in motion an activist legacy linking photojournalism with reform .
Why did Jacob Riis take photographs?
While working as a police reporter for the New York Tribune, he did a series of exposés on slum conditions on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which led him to view photography as a way of communicating the need for slum reform to the public .
Why did sinks stink in tenements?
According to How the Other Half Lives, why did sinks stink in tenements? They were old and rusty. They were filled with waste water.
Living conditions were deplorable: Built close together, tenements typically lacked adequate windows, rendering them poorly ventilated and dark , and they were frequently in disrepair. Vermin were a persistent problem as buildings lacked proper sanitation facilities.
Why did city government officials allow these conditions to continue how the other half lives?
City government officials allow these conditions to continue because... ... city governments could not keep pace with the rapid population growth and springing up of new cities .
What was one of the dangers of living in tenement?
Cramped, poorly lit, under ventilated, and usually without indoor plumbing, the tenements were hotbeds of vermin and disease, and were frequently swept by cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis .
How did Jacob Riis use photography to expose horrible living conditions?
Photographer Jacob Riis exposed the squalid and unsafe state of NYC immigrant tenements . Photographer Jacob Riis exposed the squalid and unsafe state of NYC immigrant tenements. ... Tenement buildings were constructed with cheap materials, had little or no indoor plumbing and lacked proper ventilation.
What problems did Jacob Riis see with life in city tenements?
Although many cities instituted housing codes and built sanitation facilities, many poor neighborhoods remained crowded and dirty. Epidemics of diseases like typhoid, smallpox, & tuberculosis , were routine.
Why was Jacob Riis considered a muckraker?
Riis was among the first journalists to use photos in documenting the living conditions of the poor . For this reason, he is also an important figure in the history of photojournalism. ... Riis did not simply write about conditions he chanced upon but actively attempted to relieve the misery he found in the slums.
Who was Jacob Riis friends with?
Theodore Roosevelt and Jacob Riis remained close friends during Roosevelt’s climb to the White House.
