
How the Other Half Lives
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.00 for first 30 days
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Danny Campbell
-
By:
-
Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the 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 class. How The Other Half Lives quickly became a landmark in the annals of social reform. Riis documented the filth, disease, exploitation, and overcrowding that characterized the experience of more than one million immigrants. He helped push tenement reform to the front of New York's political agenda, and prompted then-Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to close down the police-run poor houses. Roosevelt later called Riis "the most useful citizen of New York". Riis's idea inspired Jack London to write a similar expos on London's East End, called People of the Abyss.
Public Domain (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Editorial reviews
Narrator Danny Campbell beautifully illustrates this blunt and righteous text. Photojournalist and consciousness objector Jacob Riis unearthed the plight of New York slum dwellers in the 1880s via brutally honest photography. He was a pioneer of art in the cause of social justice. He also wrote singeing indictments of the other half, the people of privilege who are indifferent to and often profit from the misery of the poor. His criticism is specific to the New York of that time, but on a broader note it highlights the legacy of inequity among mankind. Riis is not the dispassionate witness; he is deeply committed to shaming those who pretend ignorance of inequity. Campbell’s quietly angry voice shares Riis’ turbulent emotions, which range from outrage to grief.
Mini series please
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great trip back in time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Of Historical Interest
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Early Muckraking to a Fault
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
. the similarities of the lower middle and upper class to today's political and class issues are astounding and I opening.
great history
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good information
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Classic... Brings one into the depths of Poverty..
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Masterpiece Recovered
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book! Terrible narration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Riis takes notice of both the people of New York, as well as the built environment showing how community (Chinatown, Jewtown, Little Italy, and Bohemia) and structure (the Tenements, Cheap Lodging-houses, and the Bend) combine to produce an environment that motivates idealist dreamers, imprisons those that capitulate to its horrors, and crushes the weak and weary.
This is the story of American immigrants. Hard working, oppressed, abused, and ill-treated, but determined to make life a better place for their children, if not themselves. Riis pulls no punches when discussing ethnic groups, their behavior, and the vices that correlate with their condition.
Highly recommended.
Pure History
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.