The Making of an American Illustrated

When nothing seems to help I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it--but all that had gone before. --Jacob Riis The Making of an AmericanJournalist Jacob Riis wrote his autobiography The Making of an American in 1901 a personal story about his and Americas past: his early life in Denmark his struggles as an immigrant in the United States and how he took advantage of the opportunities offered in America.This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in immigrant stories the history of the United States and New York and social reform at the turn of the twentieth century.