The main goals of the Progressive movement were to eliminate the problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption. Two Reformers who focused on bringing light to the horrors of child labor were Jacob Riis and Florence Kelley.
What did Jacob Riis do for social reform?
Jacob Riis was an American newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer. With his book How the Other Half Lives (1890), he shocked the conscience of his readers with factual descriptions of slum conditions in New York City. How did Jacob Riis influence others?
Why did Jacob Riis write how the other half lives?
Newspaper reporter Jacob August Riis (1849-1914), himself an immigrant from Denmark, began documenting the unregulated housing conditions in New York City in the 1880s to make poverty visible to the middle and upper classes and to shock his audience into action. He rose to national prominence with his 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives, in whic...
Why did Jacob Riis write the Riis report?
Newspaper reporter Jacob August Riis (1849-1914), himself an immigrant from Denmark, began documenting the unregulated housing conditions in New York City in the 1880s to make poverty visible to the middle and upper classes and to shock his audience into action.
What is Jacob Riis best known for?
Jacob Riis, in full Jacob August Riis (born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Denmark-died May 26, 1914, Barre, Massachusetts, U.S.), American newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer who, with his book How the Other Half Lives (1890), shocked the conscience of his readers with factual descriptions of slum conditions in New York City.
What impact did Jacob Riis have on the progressive movement?
Harrowing images of tenements and alleyways where New York's immigrant communities lived, combined with his evocative storytelling, were intended to engage and inform his audience and exhort them to act. Riis helped set in motion an activist legacy linking photojournalism with reform.
How did Jacob Riis impact society?
Riis was among the first in the United States to conceive of photographic images as instruments for social change; he was also among the first to use flash powder to photograph interior views, and his book How the Other Half Lives was one of the earliest to employ halftone reproduction successfully.
What is the effect of the book Jacob Riis published?
How did Jacob Riis influence others? His book, How the Other Half Lives (1890), stimulated the first significant New York legislation to curb poor conditions in tenement housing. It was also an important predecessor to muckraking journalism, which took shape in the United States after 1900.
What was the purpose of Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives?
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.
What was the social impact of Jacob Riis's book How the Other Half Lives quizlet?
What was the social impact of Jacob Riis's book How the Other Half Lives? Laws were passed to improve conditions for the poor.
What was Jacob Riis criticized for?
While Riis did not record the names of the people he photographed, he organized his book into ethnic sections, categorizing the images according to the racial and ethnic stereotypes of his age. In this regard, Riis has been criticized for both his bias and reducing those photographed to nameless victims.
How did people react to How the Other Half Lives?
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 all across the country.
How was Jacob Riis muckraker?
Jacob Riis did his best to expose the brash living conditions of the poor in the New York slums but the resulting changes that were made may have done more to rearrange the face of the problem than to solve it.
Why was Jacob Riis important?
Jacob Riis was an American newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer. With his book How the Other Half Lives (1890), he shocked the con...
How did Jacob Riis influence others?
His book, How the Other Half Lives (1890), stimulated the first significant New York legislation to curb poor conditions in tenement housing. It wa...
What were Jacob Riis’s accomplishments?
In addition to his writing, Riis’s photographs helped illuminate the ragged underside of city life. By the late 1880s, Riis had begun photographing...
What was Jacob Riis's book?
Among Riis’s other books were The Children of the Poor (1892), Out of Mulberry Street (1896), The Battle with the Slum (1901), and his autobiography, The Making of an American (1901). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Who is Jacob Riis?
Jacob Riis, in full Jacob August Riis, (born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Denmark—died May 26, 1914, Barre, Massachusetts, U.S.), American newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer who, with his book How the Other Half Lives (1890), shocked the conscience of his readers with factual descriptions of slum conditions in New York City.
How did the other half lives make Riis famous?
The book’s success made Riis famous, and How the Other Half Lives stimulated the first significant New York legislation to curb tenement house evils. It also became an important predecessor to the muckraking journalism that took shape in the United States after 1900. Shelter for immigrants in a New York City tenement, photograph by Jacob Riis, 1888.
How did Riis use the images in How the Other Half Lives?
Riis used the images to dramatize his lectures and books, and the engravings of those photographs that were used in How the Other Half Lives helped to make the book popular. But it was Riis’s revelations and writing style that ensured a wide readership: his story, he wrote in the book’s introduction, “is dark enough, ...
Who was the social reformer who described a metropolis as “barely yet out of its knicker?
Learn More in these related Britannica articles: In 1899 social reformer Jacob Riis described a metropolis “barely yet out of its knickerbockers” yet poised for greatness; Riis believed its enduring challenge would be to care for the poor.