Gilded Age
The era commonly known the “Gilded Age” received this descriptive name for several reasons. One reason the term “gilded” was used was to describe how society appeared shiny and unblemished from the outside, however, the inside did not reflect the same condition. Jacob Riis’ novel, How the Other Half Lives, written amid the Gilded Age in 1890, explored the hardships of the unappreciated populations that embody the unpolished appearance responsible for the name, “the Gilded Age.” Riis used photojournalism to uncover the realities of living in the cramped tenements of New York City along with the causes of exploitation of these inhabitants. As a Danish-American, Riis was set on trying to improve the lives of the immigrants who populated the overcrowded …show more content…
As the population kept increasing, families from different countries would travel over to find the rest of their family members and congregate together in the same housing units. This trend created communities that were primarily composed of people of the same ethnicity which gave rise to nicknames like “Chinatown” and “Jewtown” for these specific areas. These areas attracted more and more people from the same ethnic background which furthered the degree of overcrowding. The rapid growth of New York is ultimately what led to the poor conditions of the tenements. Riis described the over crowdedness of the tenements certain disgust saying, “something like forty families are packed into five old two-story and attic houses that were built to hold five.” Families had no other choice than to live crammed into small spaces if they wanted to live close to their work. Immigrant workers were going to endure whatever conditions they had to as their goal was to make enough money to send home or bring the rest of their family …show more content…
There is no denying that this part of history is the reason health and housing regulations are as strong as we experience today. With Riis’s novel acting as a valuable primary source documenting first-hand experiences, it is easy to conclude that life in the tenements were not desirable in any aspect. This way of life arose because there was no quicker way to deal with such a rapidly growing demand for cheap housing close to the city. Life in the tenements does not compare to anything seen in modern times. Riis’s illustrations of this life confirm what we know as history, but what many others knew as
Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives Summary
1244 Words | 5 PagesJacob Riis in “How the Other Half Lives” is about the squalor that characterizes New York City’s working class immigrant neighborhoods. He describes deplorable conditions of these immigrants by providing specific examples, relaying them through quotation and images alike. Riis comments on the injustices that the residents of the tenements faced on a regular basis. So, with his attention to detail, Riis provided the contemporary reader with unsettling images of the poor and marginalized along with a few examples of the benefits of reform and reorganization in the poorer communities, to the benefit of residents. Another observer, Richard T. Ely, in “Pullman: A Social Study” writes about the community of Pullman, Illinois located in the suburbs of Chicago.
Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives Summary
1200 Words | 5 PagesIn Jacob Riis’ revolutionary book How the Other Half Lives, Riis details the atrocious conditions of the tenements in New York City at the turn of the century. Riis particularly focusses his initial chapters on the formation of the tenements and their subsequent demise into filthy ruins. In many ways, these tenements paralleled the federal housing projects of the 1950’s. Both populations predominately included impoverished, working class immigrants and minorities. However, the tenements and the projects differ in terms of supportive communities.
How The Other Half Lives Chapter Summaries
555 Words | 3 PagesHow the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting 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 classes. History and contents In the 1890s many people in upper- and middle-class society were unaware of the dangerous conditions in the slums among poor immigrants.
Synopsis Of After The Fact By James West Davidson
680 Words | 3 PagesNikodem Dupre 5/20/18 After the Fact by James West Davidson is a text on the various methods a historian has at his disposal to help interpret the events of the past. The authors are both historians and History professors specializing in American history, and they draw from the historical backdrop of the Assembled States to give delineations of the ideas they look to depict. One example is how Jacob Riis in Chapter 9 helped shaped the low income working class. Riis had started capturing the insides and outsides of New York ghettos with a glimmer light.
Gilded Age DBQ
1249 Words | 5 PagesWhile laissez-faire enabled corporate powers to burgeon, farmers and social workers did not benefit from the bureaucratic government. American agriculture endured many hardships during the Gilded Age and was profoundly affected by the technological advancements, government policies, and economic conditions between 1865 and 1900. The declining position of American Farmers was the corollary of novel technology and mechanized agriculture. Because subsistence farming was no longer a viable option, farmers transformed their estates into commercial businesses and became heavily dependent on machinery and producing at commercial scales. Much of the new technology farmers invested in for example, steel plows, harrows, grain binders, threshers, windmills,
Review Of Jacob Riss's 'How The Other Half Lives'
1164 Words | 5 PagesHow the Other Half Lives is a well written chronicle by Jacob Riss during the era of the late 1800s and the early 1900s in order to bring awareness of the abandoned immigrants that lived in what is described as the lower part of Manhattan. Immigrants from all over and different ethnicities like the Germans, African- Americans,Chinese,Irish,Jews,Italians,and the Bohemians would flee to New York. Most immigrants would live in what are called tenements which were owned by the some of the wealthiest families. After the year of 1900 approximately 80,000 tenements were created. A good majority of the population lived in tenements.
Gilded Age Dbq Essay
790 Words | 4 PagesIt’s hard to truly say whether growth in the late 19th century was good. It gave rise to a new era of industrialization, and ushered in a new, globalised society. It also toppled the old notion of the American Dream, and drew to question what words like freedom and equality truly meant. It put power in the hands of the wealthy and took freedom from the disadvantaged. A new system of power was borne unto the world, one where money is power, and power is freedom.
Gilded Age DBQ
615 Words | 3 PagesThe Gilded Age boasted a lot of great things for the United States. It created so much in such a short amount of time, but that time also brought bad things. Monopolies, factory accidents, horrible working conditions, and an ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. These problems were handled very poorly due. This was due to nobody really caring about the poor and not eliminating trusts.
Jacob Riis Living In The 19th Century
240 Words | 1 PagesThese low-rise apartment buildings, known as tenements, most of them were in the city’s lower east side neighborhood. They were often cramped, had very little light and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. By 1900, about 2.3 million people were living in tenement
Gilded Age Dbq
941 Words | 4 PagesThe end of the reconstruction era gave rise to the gilded age. The gilded age was a time of economic growth. It was the second industrial revolution, urbanization, immigration and political/economic corruption. The congress and the big business were more influential than the presidency. The term ‘Gilded Age’ was termed by Mark Twain who described the wealthy who were covered in a ‘layer of gold’, a superficial layer can be peeled and reveals unpleasant things.
Jacob Riis's 'How The Other Half Life'
1399 Words | 6 PagesThe dramatic economic expansion that American experienced during industrialization led to the creation of the extremely poor and the extremely rich. During the Progressive Era, New York faced overpopulation distribution and overcrowding of living arrangements in the city due to the migration. Inevitably, the class division in terms of the economy and social amongst the people made it impossible for Americanization of becoming together as a nation. Jacob Riis, and immigrant himself, a photojournalist and most important, a social reformer exposed the abuse and poor treatment of the tenements in New York City through his work How the Other Half Lives. He utilized the use of flash photograph, allowing him to capture and communicate in a very specific
Labouring-Class Americans During The Gilded Age
489 Words | 2 PagesImagine working sixteen hours a day in an unsanitary, dangerous, place for a big business gaining two dollars. This is what laboring-class Americans had to go through during the Gilded age. Politically, the first largest American labor union was formed during the Gilded age and many other organizations formed as well as violent strikes. Socially, different ethnics joined together to share their thoughts and realize the evils of big business and of the federal government. Mentally, most we 're losing their personal life while some were financially stable and glad.
Industrialization During The Gilded Age
1292 Words | 6 PagesIn a time after the Civil War, when a transcontinental railroad was created connecting the East and West, people began to move and settle across the country, creating new urban cities and manufacturing hubs. It was because of the railroad that the Second Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age took place which rapidly increased the manufacturing of products through the new machines in factories and the spread of ideas by the telegraph and railroad. It was in this context that many farmers, as well, began to move West and experience a loss in the prices of their crops. It is also in this context that many workers were forced to work long, laborious hours with little pay. Farmers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age by forming organizations such as the Granger movement and the Farmers Alliance as well as creating the Populist Party.
Landlords: The First New York Tenements
1366 Words | 6 PagesMore than sixty-five percent of New York’s population lived in those tenements. Tenements were a large source of suffering for new immigrants and their families. This is mainly due to their unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. The tenement conditions were horrendous and appalling.
Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives Sparknotes
1470 Words | 6 PagesAs a muckraker, Jacob Riis wrote about his journey through the New York slums which is described in the book How the Other Half Lives:Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890). Thus, using his research and experience in New York, Jacob Riis establishes a strongly supported novel that, which is based on his first hand experienced information that he gathered while touring through Mulberry Street and several other streets, to better understand the hardship of
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