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How Did Jacob Riis Change During The Gilded Age

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During the “Gilded Age”, numerous people immigrated to New York due to an enormous economic growth in the United States. They strove after a better life for themselves and their families but instead, they encountered poverty and discrimination. Jacob Riis, an activist and journalist, captured the living conditions of those who contributed to this economic growth on photographs and tried to bring greater awareness to this issue in his 1890 publication How the other half lives. In the course of this essay, I want to discuss how – and if so, in how far – Giis’ photographs are in accurate representation of living conditions in this era. I will put the main focus on the influence Riis’ work had considering the perception of the working-class. To do so, I will begin with a general overview of the “Gilded Age” and the immigrants’ situation during this era.
Afterwards, I will examine the characteristics of Riis’ work. Following this, I will show the immediate impact Riis’ publication had. …show more content…

It was coined by Mark Twain and is linked to the term “Golden Age”, thus aiming to show how upon first view, this era was seemingly a prosperous and booming one, but if one was to look deeper into socio-economic issues, they would be quick to realize that there were indeed people who paid for the economic growth. Giis managed to capture the living conditions of those who weren’t on the winning side of this economic upturn: His photographs of flats of the working class show that despite the general economic trend, a lot of people still had to live in extreme

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