Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives Analysis
Jacob Riis
It was 1890, a difficult time in the still young America, when author Jacob Riis won international acclaim for this bestseller of that year, “How the Other Half Lives,” an in-depth expose on the desperate and squalid conditions of New York City’s tenements and slums. Riis’ book provided impetus to a sanitary reform movement that began in the 1840s and ultimately culminated in New York State’s landmark Tenement House Act of 1901. Jacob August Riis, journalist, author, photographer and social reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark, in 1849 and immigrated to the United States in 1870 at the age of 21. During those early years, he worked at a variety of jobs through many states and familiarized himself with the life of many of his …show more content…
When Immigrants first arrived in America, various types of jobs were available to men and women at dockyards, gas refineries, ironworks, slaughterhouses, book publishers, sweatshops, and factories producing everything from clocks, pencils, and glue, to cakes, beer, and cigars. The work was not always safe and the work environment was not always healthy. The workers were not always provided with all the necessary equipment to complete the job successfully. These types of jobs relied heavily on hard labor, long hours and harsh working conditions-all for very little …show more content…
Ten hours was the legal work-day in the factories, and nine o'clock was the closing hour at the latest. Men and women actually worked up to sixteen hours a day and sometimes would take their work home with them. For dinner forty-five minutes was the least to be allowed, but men and women would eat while they work. Living in this lifestyle was not easy, but if one was willing to work hard and strive to succeed the possibilities would expand. Not everyone in this time could have luxuries and most found that learning English as a second language was a luxury. For one’s immigrant family to advance up in the economic ladder, the family would have to work together as a team and produce more in order to make more. A family in the early nineteen hundreds could earn extra income by living in a tenement home and make
It was 1890, a difficult time in the still young America, when author Jacob Riis won international acclaim for this bestseller of that year, “How the Other Half Lives,” an in-depth expose on the desperate and squalid conditions of New York City’s tenements and slums. Riis’ book provided impetus to a sanitary reform movement that began in the 1840s and ultimately culminated in New York State’s landmark Tenement House Act of 1901. Jacob August Riis, journalist, author, photographer and social reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark, in 1849 and immigrated to the United States in 1870 at the age of 21. During those early years, he worked at a variety of jobs through many states and familiarized himself with the life of many of his …show more content…
When Immigrants first arrived in America, various types of jobs were available to men and women at dockyards, gas refineries, ironworks, slaughterhouses, book publishers, sweatshops, and factories producing everything from clocks, pencils, and glue, to cakes, beer, and cigars. The work was not always safe and the work environment was not always healthy. The workers were not always provided with all the necessary equipment to complete the job successfully. These types of jobs relied heavily on hard labor, long hours and harsh working conditions-all for very little …show more content…
Ten hours was the legal work-day in the factories, and nine o'clock was the closing hour at the latest. Men and women actually worked up to sixteen hours a day and sometimes would take their work home with them. For dinner forty-five minutes was the least to be allowed, but men and women would eat while they work. Living in this lifestyle was not easy, but if one was willing to work hard and strive to succeed the possibilities would expand. Not everyone in this time could have luxuries and most found that learning English as a second language was a luxury. For one’s immigrant family to advance up in the economic ladder, the family would have to work together as a team and produce more in order to make more. A family in the early nineteen hundreds could earn extra income by living in a tenement home and make