The Power Of America’s Most Misremembered Book

If I start talking about how the other half lives, you likely picture the one percent. People with private jets, a garage full of antique cars, and a huge house.

However, the original book; How The Other Half Lives, was about anything but.

This is a rather unique book because instead of being full of essays and arguments, it told stories through photographs.

Heartbreaking photographs of people living in slums, risking their lives in factories, of children forced to work instead of being at school.

The pictures horrified those who had more.

For the first time, blatant inequality stared people in the face in the form of a book.

People who saw the horrors caused by weak laws and lack of regulations, lobbied for better working conditions, the end of child labor, and schools for all.

That book started the ball rolling on an America that actually served all, not just the select few. And while this is a battle we’re still fighting, this book will have a lot to do with America eventually winning that fight.

It might be time for a new book like that soon. Maybe it will be yours.