# Jacob Riis — An Autobiography character guide

> Jacob Riis in An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Jacob Riis, Jake Riis

**First appearance:** 0008-vi-the-new-york-police

## Snapshot

The muckraking photographer and journalist whose harrowing exposés of tenement poverty made him Roosevelt's indispensable comrade in the fight for police and slum reform.

## Who they are

Riis, a Danish immigrant turned reformer, brought Roosevelt face to face with the city's darkest corners and its most vulnerable inhabitants. Their partnership joined Riis's unflinching documentation of misery to Roosevelt's appetite for administrative action. He matters because he represents the era's conscience-driven journalism and the alliances that turned Roosevelt's police work into a broader crusade for social justice.

## In the story

### [VI: The New York Police](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/an_autobiography_se/chapters/vi-the-new-york-police)

Close ally and guide; his book 'How the Other Half Lives' inspired Roosevelt, and they worked together to improve tenement conditions and police reform.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/an_autobiography_se/characters/jacob_riis
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/an_autobiography_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/an_autobiography_se/characters