USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Jacob Riis was a muckraker before the term was used to describe journalists in America. His photo-journalistic effort, How the Other Half Lives, exposed the general public to the tenement housing that served as home to thousands of working class families in New York.

Detailed explanation-2: -In fact, ‘how the other half lives’ originally derived from the title of a photo report from the 1890s which looked into extreme poverty. The ‘other half’ were the poor and destitute, living in slums that were hidden from view from the wealthier half of the population who bought and read newspapers.

Detailed explanation-3: -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.

Detailed explanation-4: -The book was successful. Soon after its publication, The New York Times lauded its content, calling it a “powerful book". The praise for How the Other Half Lives continued in many other newspapers across the country.

Detailed explanation-5: -Cramped, poorly lit, under ventilated, and usually without indoor plumbing, the tenements were hotbeds of vermin and disease, and were frequently swept by cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis.