Publisher's Synopsis
""The Making of an American"" is a memoir written by Jacob A. Riis, a Danish-American journalist and social reformer. The book chronicles Riis' journey from his impoverished upbringing in Denmark to his eventual success as a journalist and advocate for social reform in America. Riis describes his struggles as an immigrant in a new country, including poverty, discrimination, and the challenges of learning a new language. He also discusses his work as a journalist, documenting the living conditions of the poor and advocating for better housing and sanitation. The book provides a firsthand account of the social and economic conditions of the late 19th century, as well as the experiences of immigrants in America during this time. Overall, ""The Making of an American"" is a powerful and inspiring story of perseverance, determination, and the pursuit of the American Dream.In all of which I have made no account of a factor which is at the bottom of half our troubles with our immigrant population, so far as they are not of our own making: the loss of reckoning that follows uprooting; the cutting loose from all sense of responsibility, with the old standards gone, that makes the politician's job so profitable in our large cities, and that of the patriot and the housekeeper so wearisome. We all know the process. The immigrant has no patent on it. It afflicts the native, too, when he goes to a town where he is not known.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.