Steven J. Ross is Professor of History at the University of Southern California, and the Myron and Marian Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. His most recent book, Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America was named a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History for 2018 and has been on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List for 23 weeks. His previous book Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics, received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Film Scholars Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America, received the Theater Library Association Book Award for 1999, as well as a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Ross’ Op-Eds have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time, Politico, International Herald-Tribune, Hollywood Reporter, HuffingtonPost, and Daily Beast.
Ross’s current book project, The War Against Hate: American Resistance After 1945 tells the true story of the rise and fall of hate groups in America from 1945 to the late 1970s, and of the spies who brought them down. Following the end of World War II, three New York-based groups—the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League—sent dozens of men and women to infiltrate, monitor, and undermine the efforts of anti-Semites and White Supremacists throughout the nation.