How do you think Jacob Riis’ perspective as an immigrant himself might have motivated him to capture the images of tenement housing? In the 1800’s, New York City grew at a rapid pace and became a thriving city of culture, wealth, and innovation. However, not all residents were wealthy. Many lived in total poverty and dangerous living conditions, especially new immigrants. Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States in 1870; first working as a carpenter, he eventually was able to secure a job as a news reporter at The New York Tribune. After some time, he was assigned to be a police reporter and reported on crimes in the New York City slums and tenements. This gave him a firsthand look at the tenements of the Lower East Side of Manhattan where most of the newly arriving immigrants lived. After months of documenting the unsafe living conditions in tenements, Jacob Riis gave a speech and displayed his photographs of the tenements at a church; the talk was titled How the Other Half Lives.

relations between the soviet union and the united states were driven by a complex interplay of ideological, political, and economic factors, which led to shifts between cautious cooperation and often bitter superpower rivalry over the years. the distinct differences in the political systems of the two countries often prevented them from reaching a mutual understanding on key policy issues and even, as in the case of the cuban missile crisis, brought them to the brink of war.

the united states government was initially hostile to the soviet leaders for taking russia out of world war i and was opposed to a state ideologically based on communism. although the united states embarked on a famine relief program in the soviet union in the early 1920s and american businessmen established commercial ties there during the period of the new economic policy (1921–29), the two countries did not establish diplomatic relations until 1933. by that time, the totalitarian nature of joseph stalin's regime presented an insurmountable obstacle to friendly relations with the west. although world war ii brought the two countries into alliance, based on the common aim of defeating nazi germany, the soviet union's aggressive, antidemocratic policy toward eastern europe had created tensions even before the war ended.

straight down to hell mate