Jacob Riis's famed 1890 photo-text addressed the problems of immigration, technological innovation, industry, and urban life at the dawn of the twentieth century. American studies instructor and freelance photographer David Leviatin edited this edition to be as faithful to the original text as possible; all interior photos are uncropped reprints made from Riis's original negatives, lantern slides, and prints.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (Bedford Series in History and Culture)

History

Riis, Jacob A.

Leviatin, David

Americas

Bedford/St Martins

pp. xv 304.Top and tail of spine rubbed, corner of boards rubbed and small wear on the middle of the back cover.Previous owners name and date on FEP

How The Other Half Lives

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Garrett Press

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.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (The John Harvard Library)

Belknap Press

An 1890 report on the social conditions of the Lower East Side, based on a journalist's night rounds with a New York city health inspector

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The classic account of a police reporter's personal observations and judgements of New York City's slums in the late nineteenth century

How the Other Half Lives

Hill & Wang Pub

Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914) was a Danish American social reformer, muckraking journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for his dedication to using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City, which was the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He helped with the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. As one of the most prominent proponents of the newly practicable flash, he is considered a pioneer in photography.

Peter Smith Pub Inc

How the Other Half Lives (1890) was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting 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 classes.

Corner House Pub

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Nabu Press

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.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Kessinger Publishing

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Contemporary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Riis, Jacob A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Riis, Jacob A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Riis, Jacob A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (Bedford Series in History and Culture)

How The Other Half Lives

How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (The John Harvard Library)

How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (The John Harvard Library)

How the Other Half Lives

How the Other Half Lives

How the Other Half Lives

How the Other Half Lives

How The Other Half Lives

How The Other Half Lives