Book Review Of How The Other Half Lives By Jacob Riis

In the book How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, Jacob describes in his book on the systems of tenants of housing had failed due to greed and neglecting wealthier people. Also he shows that a correlation between the high crime rate, drunkenness and reckless behavior from the poor and it also shows that they lack of owning a proper home. It mostly focuses on slum conditions of the lower East side of Manhattan, where many immigrants like Jews, Italians, Chinese, Germans, and Irish were packed in tenements. Many of them had no windows, no ventilation, and tried to prevent overcrowding, crime, diseases, filth and most of all poverty. He also exposes the kind of conditions poor people live in. Not just that but it also exposes the wretched working

The rooms in the tenement were too small to house one family because it was too dark and stagnant to be living in. Tenements were hot, filthy, dark and diseases. The tenants were very cramped that many babies died because they didn’t get enough air the cause of no ventilation. Deaths in the tenants were very common due to the poor conditions of the tenant. The death rate was very high for the first year that tenements were instituted that the deaths in the city doubled. The population in the tenements were very high because it was overcrowded and the tenements located in the East side of Manhattan had the highest population density in the world. Riis had noticed that the lower class was increasing making it a major problem and would be worst if the tenements were remedied. Also the tenant’s behavior and characteristics relied on their surrounding conditions. The tenants liked to hangout in the salon, and it was usually located in the first floor. The tenants hardly bathed or cleaned and lived like animals. Riis believed that the nature of poor environment plays a major factor in their development of their morals and