American History

The author of this book Jacob Riis, who was himself an immigrant, tries to bring to light the on goings that characterized life of the slums that existed in New York at the 19th century. Through his highly captivating and expository book How the Other Half lives the author tries to relate the title and the lives of those who live across both opposite ends of the divide. His main focus is mainly centered on the housing tenement system that characterized the lives of those who lived in New York at the time.

Through the book itself, the author who had gained first hand experience in living in this deplorable conditions, vividly describes the living conditions in New York City. In his introduction he clearly captures the state of livelihood by giving a saying that used to go round in the preceding years. He tries to argue the point that the world as it is half of it does not actually know how the other half of its population is living.

He starts his famed and highly publicized book by giving an account of how New York, being one of the youngest of the worlds greatest cities had not experienced the repercussions of being a great city. When its time came what became characteristic of it was more than words could describe. He clearly reminisces how crime, deteriorating living conditions and unimaginable working conditions were the order of the day (Riis, 2004). This as he tries to argue, was due to the division in settlements which were separated by boundaries between the poor and the well off in the society. He explains this by giving an approximation of where the criminals used to come from.

The author, who has been highly praised for his superb work, goes a step further to give a detailed plan on how to best the problem can be fixed. Just as the title of the book suggests the author tries to provoke a moral sense into the other half that is well off. He tries to put across the reasoning that only by caring about how the other half lives is the only way to better the lives of everyone whether indirectly or directly. Some of his concrete plans centers around the need to have laws that benefit the poor, and also the need for remodeling or building new tenements.