The book How the Other Half Lives was written by Jacob Riis , a Danish‑American journalist, social reformer, and photographer active in New York City in the late 19th century.

Quick Scoop

  • The full title is How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York , published in 1890.
  • Jacob Riis used photographs and reporting to expose harsh living conditions in New York City slums, helping spark housing and tenement reforms.
  • The work is often cited as an early example of muckraking journalism and a landmark in American social reform literature.

In short: when people ask “who wrote How the Other Half Lives ,” the answer is Jacob Riis, whose reporting and images pushed the Gilded Age public to confront urban poverty head‑on.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.