Millions of other Americans were searching for a place in the new industrial society of the late nineteenth century. The Civil War led to people flooding into cities.
Urban areas changed from homogenous with Irish and Germans to large groups of European immigrants. New York had the largest Jewish population.
The quality of living changed as manufacturing and commerce crowed into cities. The top classes fled to the suburbs. Realtors changed mansions into tenements for many people. Crude sanitation turned streets into disease grounds, and plumbing was poor.
The story of the poor is known due to social workers studying the slums firsthand and writing their experiences.
Jacob Riis studied on New York’s Lower East Side, How the Other Half Lives. He showed poor slum life and called for reform.
He fled Scandavian’s poverty for American opportunities. Previously, his father was a schoolmaster and he was a carpenter.
Sam Bass Warner states how he revolutionized the understanding of urban poverty that could lead to political action.
He built shacks near Pittsburgh, trapped muskrats in NY, sold furniture and sometimes did carpentry.
He eventually became poor and was near death until the Danish consul ih Philadelphia took him in.
He then landed a job on police reporter for the NYT. There he got to observe urban poverty, through indigents who were carted off and through immigrant observation.
Charles Dickens’ style involved graphic detail and vignettes, which was used during the time in reports which involved readers directly with slums. Stories included female exploitation and Pietro.
Riis’ stories weren’t dramatic enough to cause action, and conditions got worse in New York.
He left the tribune to write How the Other Half Lives
He wanted to make a case for reform, and combined his stories to a broader indication of urban blight. (Story and statistic) Documentary-like.
Involved photography, similar to Street Life in London’s