Jacob Riis was born in Denmark and emigrated to the United States in 1870. He famously became known as Jacob Riis “police reporter, reformer, useful citizen” following a biography of him by Louise Ware, published under that title. His groundbreaking account of tenement life in in the New York City of the late 19th century was based on what would today be described as a combination of investigative journalism and social activism which witnessed with Riis heading into the slums equipped with a flashlight and one of those enormous bulky cameras of the era.
In addition to publishing How the Other Half Lives in 1890, Riis used the power of muckraking newspapers, civic committee meetings and, especially, the power of those photographs to commit himself to becoming something of the ultimate American: exposing widespread government corruption, attacking the lack of even the most decent of social work that paid attention to those living in these conditions and truly taking whatever steps were available—however small—to push for progressive reform during they heyday of Populist sentiment which claimed to be on the side of the average Joe but—much like its return in the 21st century—actually expended little effort at improving the lives of the multitudes.
The book is not just a bleak documentary in print form, however. How the Other Half Lives moves beyond mere objective presentation of unpleasant facts to become an emotional and intellectual appeal to the public to demand change. Call it propaganda if you will, but Riis proved that not all Danes are dour, solitary, uninvolved Nordic messengers of democratic socialism by engaging an almost Spielbergian sense of appeal to the sentimental side of the reading public which it prefers to term “conscience.” Certainly it did not exactly hurt his case, either, that he quickly learned the lesson that—by and large—the common man hates the rich who exploit the poor. The word “slumlord” itself does not appear in the text, but like pornography, people know it when they see it and the abject greed which tenement owners display in the book is practically impossible to read about and then just turn casually away with no emotional investment in holding those responsible for poverty accountable.
Admittedly, all is not shining light upon Riis when viewed from the perspective of more than one-hundred years of civil rights progress later. Racism is rampant throughout and even his terminology regarding white Christians who have fallen hard upon even harder times is capable of producing more than a few uncomfortable moments. But, as it always the case, it really simply is not fair to judge what one generation as a whole tended to view as inoffensive by the standards of a later generation enlightened by men just like Riis.
The literary and muckraking career of Jacob Riis—police reporter, reformer, useful citizen—did not end with his famous work. Over the next few years he would follow up How the Other Lives with more illuminating accounts of the lives of the underprivileged: The Children of the Poor (1892), Out of Mulberry Street (1898), The Battle with the Slum (1902), and Children of the Tenements (1903).
Riis died in 1914, seven years after marrying his second wife, Mary Philips. Amazingly, his widow lived well into the 1960’s.
