The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I
Code: SL51811
Dates: April 12, 2024
Meets: 12 N to 2:00 PM
Sessions: 1
Location: Creutzburg Center 102
Course Fee: $49.00
Sorry, we are no longer accepting registrations for this course. Please contact our office to find out if it will be rescheduled, or if alternative classes are available.
Hear the colorful story of three businessmen who made mass Jewish immigration from Russia between 1881 and 1914 possible. Jacob Schiff, head of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, used his immense wealth to make America the new Jewish “promised land.” Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, created a transportation network of trains and steamships. J.P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust, tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business.
Steven Ujifusa
Steven Ujifusa is an historian and resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His second book, Barons of the Sea: And the Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship, tells the saga of the great 19th century American clipper ships and the Yankee merchant dynasties they created. Warren Delano II, maternal grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, takes center stage in the narrative. For this project, he was the recipient of a 7-week writing fellowship from the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Barons of the Sea was published by Simon & Schuster in July 2018. In 2012 The Wall Street Journal named his first book, A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the SS United States (Simon & Schuster), as one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year. He has appeared on National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, and numerous media outlets. He is a frequent contributor to the urban history website PhillyHistory.org. He is also the author of the corporate history of Airgas, Inc., and is currently working on the official history of J.M. Forbes & Company, one of the oldest independent financial services firms in the United States. A native of New York City and raised in Chappaqua, New York, Steven received his undergraduate degree in history from Harvard University and a joint masters in historic preservation and real estate development from the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of the Independence Seaport Museum and the Boys Latin Charter School of Philadelphia. He is a rowing member of the University Barge Club and a singing member of the Orpheus Club of Philadelphia. Steven resides with his wife Alexandra (a pediatric emergency room physician) and son in Philadelphia's historic Cedar Park neighborhood.N/A
