![\"Riis](\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/riis-300x224.jpg\")
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In the last decade of the 19th Century, a police reporter named Jacob Riis set out to make people in New York’s upper- and middle class aware of the squalor of their city’s slums. The result was How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York<\/a>, and it’s considered to be a landmark of social reform.<\/p>\n The book was filled with photos, sketches, and graphic descriptions of the wretched daily lives of the poverty-stricken. And, wonderfully, it did what it was intended to do: The public was galvanized by Riis’ muckraking and there were sweeping reforms which helped to improve the lives of the poor.<\/p>\n It’s a fascinating glimpse at the underbelly of New York at the turn of the last century, and it’s in the public domain so it’s readily available from a variety of sources. Authentic History<\/a> has the book’s full text, plus a handy image index. There’s an audio version free at LibriVox<\/a>. Museum Syndicate<\/a> has a gallery of Riis’ photos. And there are several hardback and e-book<\/a> versions available, many with endnotes and other expanded material. Really interesting stuff.<\/p>\n