Steven Ross is Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Co-Director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. He is the author of Movies and American Society and Workers on the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in Industrializing Cincinnati, 1788–1890. His book, Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America, received the prestigious Theater Library Association Book Award for 1999 and was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the “Best Books of 1998.” His op-ed pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, International Herald-Tribune, HuffingtonPost, and Washington Independent. He recently served as historical consultant and on-air expert for the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood.”