Customer Reviews

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

How did our grandfathers and great-grandfathers (and great-great, I suppose) survive immigration and the slums? What was life like on the Lower East Side of New York? For those of us whose family has only been in the US for a few generations, this is a must-read. Whether Irish, Italian, Jewish, Chinese or Polish, German, Russian, hordes of refugees ended up in New York on the promise of a better life.

Reading Riis' book reads like the newspaper in some ways; entrepreneurs lured poor people from Eastern Europe and contracted out their labor in sweat shops in the US. Sound familiar? But what is not so familiar are the living conditions in the tenements, 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. Farm animals had it better. Why was rent so high? Supply and demand. Cheaper rent was to be had in Brooklyn and the outlying (as yet unincorporated) boroughs, but the WORK was in Manhattan, where you could get by as a tailor, a seamstress, a peddler or in some illegitimate activity.

The conditions will make you cry; the story of foundling babies (abandoned newborns) is astonishing. 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 (women can usually nurse two, though these malnourished women must have been hard-pressed.) The child mortality rate, especially in the "back tenements" or buildings built on to the back of others (dark and airless) was incredible.

I wish the plates in the book were of better quality; Riis took many photographs, but the reproduction here is poor and they are hard to see. I recommend that if you are interested in this subject from seeing "The Gangs of New York" or for genealogical reasons, that you visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and see the buildings for yourself. Even cleaned up and no longer packed with unwashed people, they are heart-rending.

This edition of How the Other Half Lives is astoundingly bad. It contains innumerable typos (the edition was clearly the result of scanning an old edition with sub-par OCR software). Moreover the illustrations and tables are 72dpi maximum making them a nearly illegible blur on the printed page. The blurb on the back claims the book was "first published in 1901" (in fact it was 1890). The same amount of care went into this edition as went into a New York Tenement.

For all intents and purposes, Jacob Riis' HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES is the birth of photojournalism. And this new genre, like the first movies and radio programs, fascinated its audience. Riis' sharp essays are matched only by his sharp eye for photography. I don't know which made more of an impact on me: the text or the pictures of unspeakable misery. But I think it's a safe bet to say that Riis' contemporaries were fixated more on the photographs. (After all, Riis turned to photography AFTER his published essays seemed to have little effect.) In any event, the result, then as now, is a provocative, compassionate, and angry work that exposed to the middle and upper classes of his time the effects of their indifference, at best, or the effects of their roles as slumlords and sweatshop owners, at worst.

The only jarring aspect of the book is Riis' use of ethnic stereotyping. He makes several not-nice remarks about Jews, Chinamen, Italians, etc. However, we must not impose our early 21st Century values on a late 19th Century man. These types of remarks were commonplace back in the pre-politically correct times. In any event, Riis' overall intention was to help these people get out of their horrid conditions and not to slur their heritages.

One last note, Luc Sante's introduction is brilliant and serves the book very well.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points Concluded, a Novel

This is an extremely important work that is often difficult to find at local libraries. At the turn of the century the Danish immigrant, Jacob Riis, took pictures, and wrote, of the the NYC ghettos where many of the immigrants lived. It is very powerful, depressing and shocking; a must read for anyone interested in the study of urban human behavior/housing and photo journalism. Beware: Avoid some paperback editions that do not contain the pictures Riis took of the dismal living conditions in NYC.

Riis was before all else a photojournalist, and this his major body of work. As such, the fact that there even exist editions which do not contain quality reproductions of the photos astounds me. This edition only contains a few, and they are small, pixelated, two-tone reproductions. The Dover edition is the one to get.

Jacob Riis can be considered one of the greatest social reformers of modern times. He used his writing and photography to publicize the lifestyles of the lower classes in New York City in the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries. In How the Other Half Lives, Riis described the inherent injustices and terrible living conditions of New York City tenements. He exposed the public to the evils of tenement life, portraying New York City living conditions of the lower classes for what they truly were. He successfully accomplished his goal of attracting attention to a dire situation.

Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives to evoke sympathy to awaken the masses to the poverty in their backyards. Through his writings and photographs Riis knew people would become aware and respond to the living conditions in New York slums. Tenements were large buildings that overflowed with families living under miserable conditions. People representing many different nationalities lived in New York City tenements, and the population of immigrants grew incredibly during this time of emigration. It quickly became the most heterogeneous city in the country, and the different Europeans lived together under terrible conditions. Some immigrant groups of the same nationality lived in small separate communities together. Most settled on the East Side of New York, where the New York aristocracy had lived. The contrast between the days when the aristocracy lived on the East Side and when the immigrants moved there is quite apparent.

Jacob Riis stated, "Homes had ceased to be sufficiently separate, decent, and desirable to afford what are regarded as ordinary wholesome influences of home and family." Tenements were overcrowded, dark, and unsanitary. Riis felt nobody should live in these conditions, and he called people to recognize the horrors of immigrant life. The homes of these immigrants were described in this way, "Large rooms were partitioned into several smaller ones, without regard to light or ventilation, the rate of rent being lower in proportion to space or height from the street; and they soon became filled from cellar to garret with a class of tenantry living from hand to mouth, loose in morals, improvident in habits, degraded, and squalid as beggary itself." One of Riis's photographs, "In Poverty Gap, West Twenty-Fourth Street An English Coal Heaver's Home" depicts a typical poor immigrant family who obviously had very little materially and lived in a dilapidated tenement. The family seems very hardened in emotion, as if they are not even real. The combination of poignant quotes and photographs such as these led people to challenge the status quo.

One of Riis's major tasks was to distinguish the difference between the "haves" and "have-nots" of New York City by comparing the immigrants with the few rich. There was very little social mobility for tenement immigrants, who made up the majority of the population. He appealed to the consciousness of the rich by saying, "As business increased, and the city grew with rapid strides, the necessities of the poor became the opportunity of their wealthier neighbors." This points out the exploitation of immigrants by the wealthy class that Riis felt existed. No matter how hard they worked, there seemed to be no way out for the immigrants. "Knee Pants at Forty-Five Cents a Dozen - a Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop" is a photograph that shows an entire family working diligently in their confined tenement. This illustrates that there was no hope for immigrant families; they kept working but reaped no benefits. Riis blamed the tenement living conditions for the crimes and unethical behavior he saw among the immigrants. He blamed their poor standard of living for the abundance of crime and other abuses in immigrant neighborhoods. "A Downtown Morgue" presents us with drinking, one of the vices of the immigrants, but implies that they had nothing to encourage them to stay away from it. The photograph also reinforces the poverty and hopelessness, suggesting the immigrants had nothing to live for so they wasted their lives away on alcohol. Riis took a special interest in children because he saw them as innocent people who had become so jaded by their surroundings that they became criminals. "Prayer Time in the Nursery, Five Points House of Industry" portrays young children praying, probably indicating Riis's dream that all children would be set on the right path and stay there throughout their lives.

A major criticism to Riis's work is that he was prejudiced and writing from a biased point of view. Riis reflected the view of the upper classes toward the immigrants and poorer classes, and readers can pick up on this through the biases in his work. He could not fully understand the plight of the people he studied because he was not one of them. Riis used terms that were crude and unflattering to the nationalities of those whom he was describing. He describes the "Chinaman" in the following way, "Ages of senseless idolatry, a mere grub-worship, have left him without the essential qualities for appreciating the gentle teachings of a faith whose motive and unselfish spirit are alike beyond his grasp." He also referred to the Chinese as a "terrible menace to society" because of their marijuana smoking. Riis wrote that "lower class" Italians were foreign, different, and therefore separate from others. Other examples of vivid language Riis used were, "the tramps, peddlers, hags, rude swains, and the really pretty girls." Since he was an outsider due to his class, he could not possibly relate to the people he was describing.

"The business of housing the poor, if it is to amount to anything, must be business, as it was business with our fathers to put them where they are. As charity, pastime, or fad, it will miserably fail, always and everywhere" (p. 201). Jacob A. Riis, in his book, How the Other Half Lives, vividly describes the human condition of the tenements of New York during the late 1800's. The author provides not only a physical description of the tenement buildings but delves deeper into the people who live there and why they don't leave the pits of filth and despair.
Jacob Riis, presents a compelling account of the intricate business of managing the slums of New York and maintaining the status quo among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to America to seek a new and prosperous life. After arriving they found they were trapped in a life of high rents and low wages with little hope for improvement of their circumstances. What little help was available seemed to be in the form of charity that couldn't sustain the prideful immigrants desire to succeed in this country.
The reader is taken on a tour of the slums and introduced to the groups of immigrants nationality by nationality and given a full account of the author's stereotypical ideas about their good and bad points. Of the Italian Riis says he only spends time indoors when it's raining or he is sick. When the sun shines the entire population seeks the streets carrying on all facets of life (p. 47). He further says the Italian is a born gambler (p 44) and learns slowly, if at all (p. 42) so that his job of working the ash carts is simply suited for him. On the positive side Riis says the Italian is as honest as he is hot-headed (p. 45).
The Chinese are a stealth and secretive group with all activities going on behind closed doors (p75). They are also attributed with stealing the women of the white man and leading them into the grip of opium giving them up only to the Charity Hospital or the Potter's Field (p76). On the positive side the Chinese are noted for their scrupulous neatness (p 78).
The Bohemians are an honest group but rumored as being anarchists. They are fond of beer and will live at the highest means available thus they have nothing saved for a rainy day (105). He is caught in a tough position of working for poor wages and facing rising rents with no way out. For if he rebels against low wages and high rent he loses his home and job; the two are connected as cigar making takes place in the home utilizing supplies provided by the landlords.
To the Jews money is their God and they work in the tenements crowding the area of Ludlow Street more densely than the crowding of Old London (p 83). They are suited to baking as bread is cheap and their love of money and the saving of it is suited to eating bread. They are also known for their work in the clothing industry. Of the Blacks, Riis stereotypes them as cleaner and better tenants but none-the-less they pay higher rents for no one else will live in a tenement after the black man has. While much of the reading is based on the stereotypes formed by the author it still provides a vivid picture of the human condition including the live's of tramps in stale beer dives and the thugs who cause fear and trouble in the streets. Both tramps and toughs profess that the world owes them a living (p64). The author also relates the degree to which the upper class try to distort the reality of life in the tenements, classifying starvation as "improper nourishment". In one case starvation led one poor man to thoughts of murdering his own children. In his madness he had only one conscious thought: that the town should not take the children. "Better that I take care of them myself ," he repeated to himself as he ground the axe to an edge.(p 127).
Due to this book, Riis was able to draw public attention to the horrendous living conditions of the poor in New York City, and to insist on reform. The reforms he recommended were largely undertaken, although it was a very gradual process (p. ix). This may be partially attributed to political factors relating to the fact that political contests were won in the areas with the fully packed lodging houses (p 71). With this writing Riis does not allow the world to forget easily, what it does not like to remember (p196).

Riis's work is an amazing picture of life in the New York slums. While the text in itself is quite interesting, the photos are perhaps the most gripping aspect of the book. To see the tiny, crowded rooms populated by unreal numbers of people and the eyes of hungry children that stare out of the picture and are still imploring a century later is a powerful experience; Riis's book allows one to get very close to the misery these people felt. This book is not for the soft-hearted, as it is a very grim depection of life, such as it was for these immigrants.

Jacob Riis' first and most influential book, How the Other Half Lives details the lives of the impoverished of New York City's slums at the end of the 19th century. His expose was highly influential and brought about a number of reforms within the City, yet the tome is filled with almost comical stereotypes and prejudices about the various races and cultures found within the domain of the tenements, sidestreets and alleyways that the poor called, for lack of a better word, home. Despite this massive shortcoming (a sign of the times Riis lived in), Other Half is an engaging read and showcases the severe plight too many endured during this period in history, moreso than the most depressingly dour of Dickensian prose.

I used this book along with another Riis book for a U.S. History project at school. Both this book and Low Life were an incredible help. The pictures are incredible. Riis was the first to show this side of life in NYC during the first part of the century. His books are by far the best pictoral records of the time. I highly recomend this book for anyone interested in the early part of the century or anyone who needs information for school projects.