Steven Ujifusa is a historian who chronicles the American experience, with special interests in business, social, and maritime history. He is currently at work on Traction: The Rise and Fall of the Electric Streetcar, a look at how this new technology transformed the American city during the Gilded Age. A story of innovation, suburbanization, corruption, and urban strife, it will be published by Grove Atlantic. His third book, The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I, tells the story of Eastern European Jewish immigration to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was released by HarperCollins on November 21, 2023, and named by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year. Steven is the recipient of the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence from the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, a MacDowell artist residency, and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. A native of New York City and raised in Chappaqua, New York, Steven received his undergraduate degree in history from Harvard University and a masters degree in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design.