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The last ships from Hamburg : business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War I / Steven Ujifusa.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2023]Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 365 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062971876
  • 0062971875
Other title:
  • Business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War I
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part I. The Jew boy of Morris & Co. ; Convert, emigrate, or disappear ; Schiff, the immigrant success story ; Albert Ballin takes over HAPAG ; Immigrants and "Asia's fearful scourge" ; The aristocrats mobilize -- Part II. A banker's charity ; Morganizing the Atlantic ; The Kaiser's Jews ; Morgan's big offer -- Part III. The Weinsteins: One journey of many ; The most infamous pogrom ; Gaming the Russo-Japanese war ; Making peace with the Aid Society ; Revolution and rebuilding ; Revolution and rebuilding ; Immigration restriction goes mainstream ; Halting the march to armageddon -- Part IV. Betraying the Morgan Trust ; The martyrs of the Titanic ; My field is the world ; A life's work ruined ; He who saves one life, saves the world entire -- Epilogue: Kaddish for those left behind.
Summary: "The story of the mass exodus of Jews out of Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century and the titans of industry who made it possible"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: Over thirty years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern Europe, arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg. This mass exodus was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in the Jewish-American narrative has been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, who created a transportation network of trains and steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean; and J. P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust, who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business. Though their goals were often contradictory, together they made possible a migration that spared millions from persecution. Descendants of these immigrants included Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Estée Lauder, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Lauren Bacall, the Marx Brothers, David Sarnoff, Al Jolson, Sam Goldwyn, Ben Shahn, Hank Greenberg, Moses Annenberg, and many more--including Ujifusa's great grandparents. That is their legacy.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction New 305.8924 U33 Available 33111011221955
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A captivating group portrait of three 'titans' of industry who facilitated the steamship routes by which around 2 million Jewish refugees, fleeing pogroms and discrimination, immigrated from Europe to America between 1890 and 1921. . . . Ujifusa ties this intricate business history into a broader economic and diplomatic context and relates the experiences of regular people who made the crossings, including the families who perished aboard the Titanic. This innovative account provides a complex new perspective on the turn of the 20th century."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Absorbing . . . a David-and-Goliath tale of the industrial age."--Wall Street Journal

A propulsive human drama that chronicles the mass exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe to America in the early years of the twentieth century, and the men who made it possible.

Over thirty years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern Europe, arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg.

This mass exodus was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in the Jewish-American narrative has been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, who created a transportation network of trains and steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean; and J. P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust, who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business. Though their goals were often contradictory, together they made possible a migration that spared millions from persecution. Descendants of these immigrants included Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Estée Lauder, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Lauren Bacall, the Marx Brothers, David Sarnoff, Al Jolson, Sam Goldwyn, Ben Shahn, Hank Greenberg, Moses Annenberg, and many more--including Ujifusa's great grandparents. That is their legacy.

Moving from the shtetls of Russia and the ports of Hamburg to the mansions of New York's Upper East Side and the picket lines outside of the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, The Last Ships from Hamburg is a history that unfolds on both an intimate and epic scale. Meticulously researched, masterfully told, Ujifusa's story offers original insight into the American experience, connecting banking, shipping, politics, immigration, nativism, and war--and delivers crucial insight into the burgeoning refugee crisis of our own time.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-350) and index.

"The story of the mass exodus of Jews out of Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century and the titans of industry who made it possible"-- Provided by publisher.

Over thirty years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern Europe, arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg. This mass exodus was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in the Jewish-American narrative has been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, who created a transportation network of trains and steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean; and J. P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust, who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business. Though their goals were often contradictory, together they made possible a migration that spared millions from persecution. Descendants of these immigrants included Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Estée Lauder, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Lauren Bacall, the Marx Brothers, David Sarnoff, Al Jolson, Sam Goldwyn, Ben Shahn, Hank Greenberg, Moses Annenberg, and many more--including Ujifusa's great grandparents. That is their legacy.

Part I. The Jew boy of Morris & Co. ; Convert, emigrate, or disappear ; Schiff, the immigrant success story ; Albert Ballin takes over HAPAG ; Immigrants and "Asia's fearful scourge" ; The aristocrats mobilize -- Part II. A banker's charity ; Morganizing the Atlantic ; The Kaiser's Jews ; Morgan's big offer -- Part III. The Weinsteins: One journey of many ; The most infamous pogrom ; Gaming the Russo-Japanese war ; Making peace with the Aid Society ; Revolution and rebuilding ; Revolution and rebuilding ; Immigration restriction goes mainstream ; Halting the march to armageddon -- Part IV. Betraying the Morgan Trust ; The martyrs of the Titanic ; My field is the world ; A life's work ruined ; He who saves one life, saves the world entire -- Epilogue: Kaddish for those left behind.

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