A review by loganlangston
How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis, David Leviatin
3.0
Really loved this edition, Leviatin provides thoughtful insights.
“Those who fight for the poor must fight the poor to do it”, Jacob Riis says in the final chapter of the How the Other Half Lives. This quote is intended to convey his assumption that poor people were undesirous of the changes needed to liberate them from their dark, dirty, and sick tenement lifestyles. The quote is also an apt representation for the way in which Riis dehumanizes people living in the tenements and condescendingly makes arguments ostensibly for their own good. Whether Riis was able to alleviate the issues facing the poor or reinforcing the ideas that birthed their situation is arguable. Undeniably, Riis’ writing embodied the racism, racial naturalism, and individualism that were trending locally and globally. It is a snapshot of time. He is a journalist; documenting his observations and data. But he is, even more so, a storyteller, crafting a compelling narrative about the life in the tenements with a progressive recognition about the systematic problems facing poor people in New York. His compassion directly contradicts his own axioms of the nature of the poor and oppressed. This seemed to have a significant impact on the future of cities, although he does not solely deserve the credit for creating this impact. How the Other Half Lives does remain a tale about the social and physical structure fail to serve and benefit all people. These points are still quite relevant today even if these failures have shifted locations or assumed a new façade.
“Those who fight for the poor must fight the poor to do it”, Jacob Riis says in the final chapter of the How the Other Half Lives. This quote is intended to convey his assumption that poor people were undesirous of the changes needed to liberate them from their dark, dirty, and sick tenement lifestyles. The quote is also an apt representation for the way in which Riis dehumanizes people living in the tenements and condescendingly makes arguments ostensibly for their own good. Whether Riis was able to alleviate the issues facing the poor or reinforcing the ideas that birthed their situation is arguable. Undeniably, Riis’ writing embodied the racism, racial naturalism, and individualism that were trending locally and globally. It is a snapshot of time. He is a journalist; documenting his observations and data. But he is, even more so, a storyteller, crafting a compelling narrative about the life in the tenements with a progressive recognition about the systematic problems facing poor people in New York. His compassion directly contradicts his own axioms of the nature of the poor and oppressed. This seemed to have a significant impact on the future of cities, although he does not solely deserve the credit for creating this impact. How the Other Half Lives does remain a tale about the social and physical structure fail to serve and benefit all people. These points are still quite relevant today even if these failures have shifted locations or assumed a new façade.