Which journalist's work focused on urban poverty and housing conditions in New York's tenements?

Which journalist's work focused on urban poverty and housing conditions in New York's tenements?

• A. Ida Tarbell
• B. Lincoln Steffens
• C. Jacob Riis
• D. Upton Sinclair

Answer: (C)

Exposure of urban poverty and housing conditions through muckraking journalism. Jacob Riis is the journalist who used photographs and prose to reveal how immigrant families lived in New York City’s crowded, unsanitary tenements. His book How the Other Half Lives (1890) paired vivid images with reporting to show the cramped rooms, poor ventilation, fire dangers, and overall hardship faced by the urban poor. This work helped shift public opinion and spurred reform, contributing to New York’s tenement laws and other housing improvements in the Progressive Era. Other well-known muckrakers studied different issues: Ida Tarbell dissected Standard Oil’s monopoly practices, Lincoln Steffens exposed municipal corruption in several cities, and Upton Sinclair highlighted meatpacking and labor abuses. While their work raised important reforms, Riis is the one whose focus was specifically on tenement life and urban poverty in New York.

Exposure of urban poverty and housing conditions through muckraking journalism. Jacob Riis is the journalist who used photographs and prose to reveal how immigrant families lived in New York City’s crowded, unsanitary tenements. His book How the Other Half Lives (1890) paired vivid images with reporting to show the cramped rooms, poor ventilation, fire dangers, and overall hardship faced by the urban poor. This work helped shift public opinion and spurred reform, contributing to New York’s tenement laws and other housing improvements in the Progressive Era.

Other well-known muckrakers studied different issues: Ida Tarbell dissected Standard Oil’s monopoly practices, Lincoln Steffens exposed municipal corruption in several cities, and Upton Sinclair highlighted meatpacking and labor abuses. While their work raised important reforms, Riis is the one whose focus was specifically on tenement life and urban poverty in New York.