While covering an incredibly upsetting aspect of American history and being incredibly informative, even leading to policy change at the time, Riis was extremely antisemitic and racist. Some of the things he says about Jewish boarders in the tenements are so horrible I physically recoiled from my device in shock. It was an incredibly important work in history despite his views and were the start to reform that helped the people he was so hateful towards, but its still not pleasant to read between the terribly sad conditions people lived in and Riis' despicable personal views flavoring the already awful topic. For this reason I can't really justify giving this book a star rating. I don't condone his language, I don't condone his beliefs, "he was a man of his time" has NEVER been a valid argument defending views like his.

If you want to know more about the tenements I would argue there are places to do so that don't include Riis' personal prejudices, despite how historically important this book was I would recommend just looking at the images he took and compiled and using the tenement museum as a resource for text.