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This pioneering
work of photojournalism by Jacob
Riis focused on the plight of
the poor in the Lower East Side,
and greatly influenced future
"muckraking" journalism.
Riis mostly attributed
the plight of the poor to environmental
conditions, but he also
divided the poor into two categories:
deserving of assistance (mostly
women and children) and undeserving
(mostly the unemployed and intractably
criminal). He wrote with prejudice
about Jews, Italians, and Irish,
and he stopped short of calling
for government intervention. Still,
the catalyst of his work was a
genuine sympathy for his subjects,
and his work shocked many
New Yorkers. |
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