A Summary of the Book How the Other Half Lives

Jacob Riis emigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1870 and after realizing the extent of the squalor evident in some of New York City's neighborhoods, started to chronicle the lives of America's poor through the medium of photography. Riis wanted to show that while America did offer immigrants some potential for economic advancement, a vast number of immigrants fall through the cracks. Income disparity had become visibly disturbing to Riis, who produced How the Other Half Lives in order to raise awareness about the issue.

Most immigrants came to the United States with the hope of achieving goals and dreams, and while many did achieve their goals, urbanization and industrialization also presented problems such as overcrowding and unsafe work conditions. The vast numbers of immigrants that arrived to New York City at the start of the twentieth century were from various parts of Europe, with an increasing number coming from Southern and Eastern Europe. Immigrants from China and Ireland that had already lived in New York for at least a generation also added to the ethnic and cultural mix described by Riis. In How the Other Half Lives, Riis details individual immigrant communities and also shows the way they either mingle or self-segregate.

Moreover, Riis photographs many of the different types of immigrant business sectors too. Saloons and other alcohol-related jobs were common, as were sweatshops producing fabrics and clothing. Riis also shows people of different ages and genders, using photographs to detail what the lives of poor women and children were like as well as men. Because Riis presented images of people that were otherwise "invisible" to the wealthy classes, the book How the Other Half Lives caused a stir in New York. Many New Yorkers did not go to the neighborhoods where there were tenement buildings and factories. Using flash photography allowed Riis to capture the dark details that would otherwise go unnoticed. Therefore, the audience of Riis's book would have been surprised to see how much poverty existed in a city that also had a great degree of wealth.

In addition to using photographs to tell the stories of the people he met, Riis also included verbal commentary. The author genuinely wants to inspire the reader to take action. Riis's tone is strong, and he remains adamantly in favor of reforming the American social and political systems to prevent poverty. The author uses strong language to achieve his goals. For example, in Chapter 11 on the "Sweaters of Jewtown," Riis states, "The sweater knows well that the isolation of the workman in his helpless ignorance is his sure foundation, and he has done what he could -- with merciless severity where he could -- to smother every symptom of awakening intelligence in his slaves." Calling workers "slaves" draws attention to the low wages and poor working conditions that the immigrant workers would have experienced at the time. Riis implies that the owners of the sweatshops are deliberately isolating the workers and keeping them invisible, so as to not draw attention to the reality of the working conditions. Unfortunately, Riis uses extremely racist and bigoted language throughout the text when referring to the different ethnic groups.

Riis also discusses and depicts the lives of those who turn to organized crime as a means to survive. How the Other Half Lives addresses lawlessness among various immigrant communities, using a sociological viewpoint to show that crime often has its roots in poverty. There were many homeless people and "vagabonds," as well as young "street urchins," (Chapter XVII). People who are poor have been forced to beg, borrow, and steal. Many of the city's poor and downtrodden are mentally ill. Riis mentions that at the beginning of 1889, 1419 patients were admitted to a mental asylum but by the end of the year there were 4913 patients (Chapter XXII). Occasionally, Riis uses statistics to bolster his argument but generally, the book includes more of the author's opinion. The exception is when Riis discusses the police budget and the number of patients in the asylums. Riis also uses statistics in the opening chapter to claim that the tenements were born when New York accepted an unprecedented wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, causing the population of the city to rise from 100,000 to 500,000 in just 35 years.

How the Other Half Lives had a strong impact on its readers, and helped to raise awareness about the need for greater regulation of businesses and improved social safety nets for immigrants and all poor people. "The law needs a much stronger and readier backing of a thoroughly enlightened public sentiment to make it as effective as it might be made" (Chapter XXIV). The solutions Riis proposes are simple: to become more compassionate, to reduce income disparity by improving wages, and also to improve working conditions. Diseases and other problems in the overcrowded tenements was something that Riis was also concerned about, urging readers to take the situation seriously.