Synopses & Reviews
Drawing on previously unexamined diaries and letters, The Other Half marvelously re-creates the moving story of Jacob Riis, the legendary Progressive reformer and muckraking photographer. Born in 1849 in rural Denmark, Riis immigrated to America in 1870 following a devastating romantic breakup. Penniless and starving, Riis stumbled into journalism, eventually becoming a charismatic police reporter for the New York Tribune, where he befriended Theodore Roosevelt and witnessed firsthand the appalling tenement conditions of late nineteenth-century New York. His resulting expos
Synopsis
Social reformer Jacob Riis made it impossible for Americans to look the other way; now this inspiring biography restores his greatness.
Synopsis
Drawing on previously unexamined diaries and letters, "The Other Half" marvelously re-creates the moving story of Jacob Riis, the legendary Progressive reformer and muckraking photographer. 55 illustrations.
Synopsis
Social reformer Jacob Riis made it impossible for Americans to look the other way; now this inspiring biography restores his greatness.
About the Author
Tom Buk-Swienty, a Danish historian, has been the U.S. correspondent for several major Danish newspapers. A former Fellow at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, he now teaches at the University of Southern Denmark.Annette Buk-Swienty lives in southern Denmark with her husband, historian Tom Buk-Swienty, and their two children.