Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Today's book is technically about

immigration, a historical look at how the massive influx of Jewish refugees from Europe ended up

changing American culture. But it's also about technology and transportation. Because as

author Stephen Ujifusa puts it, the innovation of steel

and steamships played a crucial role in getting people from Europe to the U.S. quickly and

safely. His book is called The Last Ships from Hamburg, and he talked to hear now Scott Tong

about some of the business titans that made all of this possible

just in time for anti-Semitism to really show itself in the U.S. That's after the break.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky

conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant

events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your

podcasts.

Our next segment takes a long view of anti-Semitism.

In Europe and in this country,

many influential Americans who came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

were Jewish refugees from Russia and Eastern Europe.

And that list includes Irving Berlin.

Give me your tired, your poor. It's based on the poem Colossus, written by a descendant of Jewish refugees, Emma Lazarus.

And those words, of course, are on the Statue of Liberty.

Other refugees and descendants include Felix Frankfurter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both Supreme Court justices, as well as the Marx Brothers.

A recent book follows the transatlantic

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