Jacob A. Riis
author
Jacob August Riis was an American journalist, social reformer, and photographer who became prominent for his first-hand documentation of urban poverty in the late 19th century. Born in Denmark, he immigrated to the United States in 1870 and worked as a police reporter in New York City, specifically in the Lower East Side. His pioneering use of flash photography to expose the squalid conditions of tenement housing revolutionized muckraking journalism. His work, particularly 'How the Other Half Lives', sparked significant social reform and legislation regarding housing and immigrant welfare. He is considered one of the most influential Danish-American figures in American history.[1,2]
- urban poverty
- immigrant experience
- social reform
- muckraking journalism
- housing conditions
Books
Works by Jacob A. Riis
- 1890 How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York Original publication of the primary work.
- 1893 Street Life in the Five Points
- 1894 The Little Other Half
- 1895 The Progress of the People
- 1893 The People of the Abyss
- 1901 The Making of an American Autobiography.
- 1896 Out of Mulberry Street
- 1901 The Battle with the Slum