ABSTRACT
In the late nineteenth century, New York seemed to encompass the best and worst of the Industrial Revolution. It earned the label the Empire City by becoming the nation's largest and grandest metropolis—a master of finance, trade, and industry, a mecca for the rich, a magnet for immigrants, and a market for the world, albeit also a morass of political corruption. According to Abram Hewitt, respected industrialist, philanthropist, congressman, and mayor, New York's "imperial destiny as the greatest city in the world is assured by natural causes." Horatio Alger understood that a new urban political system was emerging and was epitomized by New York's Tammany Hall. The journalist photographer Jacob Riis played a central role in the debate over the causes and consequences of late-nineteenth-century urban problems. His influence spread beyond New York to undermine social Darwinism and alter concepts of poverty nationwide.
