Bench Ansfield

Bench Ansfield

@benchansfield.bsky.social

asst prof of history at temple // they/them BORN IN FLAMES: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City (W.W. Norton, August 19) https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324093510

1.3K followers883 following215 posts

Bench Ansfield reposted

Paul Renfro
@renfro.bsky.social

In my grad class this week, we discussed Bench Ansfield’s award-winning book BORN IN FLAMES. Our conversation centered on racial capitalism, the American studies tradition, and the politics of publishing. Congratulations to @benchansfield.bsky.social on this remarkable achievement. 🗃️

Bench Ansfield reposted

Metropolitics
@metropolitics-jrnl.bsky.social

In case you missed it: our Editorial Board shared reading (and listening) recommendations, pulled together from the titles we enjoyed over the summer and those on our desks this fall: buff.ly/Ypur3Ob

buff.lyFall Reading 2026 – MetropoliticsAs the academic year begins again, the Editorial Board looks forward to sharing new articles with our readers soon. We begin with these reading (and listening) recommendations, pulled together from…

Bench Ansfield reposted

Steven Nelson
@stevenel.bsky.social

On the newest DIY Democracy, I spoke with @benchansfield.bsky.social about the kindling, the fuels, and the spark of the 1970s arson wave, and what it means for us today.

diydemocracy.libsyn.comDIY Democracy: “Not the Government, Just Its Money” - The Role of Insurance Regulation in Creating the ‘Urban Crisis'For this episode, I spoke with Professor Bench Ansfield, author of the recent book, .  In the book and the interview, we talked about the kindling (decades of redlining, deindustrialization,...

Bench Ansfield reposted

Caleb Heeringa
@calebheeringa.bsky.social

Cannot recommend "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and The Remaking of the American City" enough. One of the best nonfiction books I've read in years & vital to understanding the hidden role of the insurance industry in our lives. @benchansfield.bsky.social www.pulitzer.org/finalists/be...

pulitzer.orgPulitzer Finalist: Bench AnsfieldAn elegantly written and scholarly account of large-scale arson instigated by landlords that wiped out wide swaths of apartment buildings and tenements in New York City from 1968 to the early 1980s, e...

Bench Ansfield reposted

American Council of Learned Societies
@acls1919.bsky.social

Congratulations to @brian-goldstone.bsky.social F'10, F'17 on being awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction and to @benchansfield.bsky.social F'20, F'22 on being named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in History! bit.ly/4tKQ7ag

bit.lyACLS Fellows Named Pulitzer Prize Winner and FinalistACLS warmly congratulates past fellows Brian Goldstone and Bench Ansfield on being recognized by the Pulitzer Prizes.

Bench Ansfield reposted

Brian Goldstone
@brian-goldstone.bsky.social

I don't quite have words yet. I'm stunned, grateful, disoriented. My deepest, deepest thanks to the five families without whom this book would not exist. It has been the honor of my life to know and learn from you.

Bench Ansfield reposted

Laura McGrath
@lbmcgrath.bsky.social

“If we are to truly come to grips with contemporary fiction, literary agents & their logic of fit are essential parts of the story. While Middlemen may concentrate on the powerful few who do it best, McGrath offers a new & important way to orient our understanding of the novel today.” More at LARB!

lareviewofbooks.orgThe Power of Fit | Los Angeles Review of BooksLaura B. McGrath’s new book looks at how the largely invisible work of literary agents shapes American literature.

Bench Ansfield reposted

david helps
@david-helps.bsky.social

My review of @benchansfield.bsky.social’s brilliant history of arson is now unpaywalled @dissentmag.bsky.social:

Dissent Magazine@dissentmag.bsky.social

Extreme heat kills over 500 New Yorkers each summer, when crowded, shadeless neighborhoods become furnaces and pressure-cookers. No borough is more vulnerable to heat-related deaths than the Bronx.

dissentmagazine.orgThe Bronx Still Burns - Dissent MagazineThe borough's arson wave in the 1970s was caused by financial forces and political priorities that continue to hold power in New York City.
Bench Ansfield
@benchansfield.bsky.social

What a week🫨 Last night in Philly I got to watch the livestream of the @latimesfob awards, where Born in Flames won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History. It was announced Oscars-style—really gets the heart racing. I was grateful to be with dear friends who know how to shriek.

Bench Ansfield reposted

Kian Goh
@kiangoh.bsky.social

Please read @charmainechua.bsky.social on the warehouse as not so much a space of storage as it is a switch (turning off and on movement of capital and goods) and a trap (for low wage workers) and, now, a space of literal DHS incarceration. placesjournal.org/article/the-...

placesjournal.orgThe Warehouse, in Plain SightThat concrete box off the freeway wasn’t designed for storage so much as capture. It’s a disappearing machine. We need to see it clearly.
Bench Ansfield
@benchansfield.bsky.social

SOLD OUT

Bench Ansfield@benchansfield.bsky.social

Please join us for a *free* student-led walking tour of the Columbia Ave uprising, which coursed through North Philly in Aug 1964 in response to police violence April 20th at noon RSVP and details at link below

Bench Ansfield
@benchansfield.bsky.social

Please join us for a *free* student-led walking tour of the Columbia Ave uprising, which coursed through North Philly in Aug 1964 in response to police violence April 20th at noon RSVP and details at link below

Bench Ansfield
@benchansfield.bsky.social

NYC! I’ll be discussing BORN IN FLAMES with these two legends on 3/4

Institute for Public Knowledge@ipk.bsky.social

Join IPK on March 4 for an event with @benchansfield.bsky.social. They will discuss their book, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City, with @jfernandez1202.bsky.social and @tomsugrue.bsky.social. ipk.nyu.edu/events/book-...

Bench Ansfield reposted

jamelle
@jamellebouie.net

i think this more than anything is what miller wants. vast detention camps with all of the suffering and death that means.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...

ajc.comICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in AprilHomeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.

Bench Ansfield reposted

nataliya braginsky
@nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social

What are the most hopeful stories you know about US history? The ones that make you feel like another world is possible. Teaching 10th graders the truth about this country’s past + present is heavy, and I need to give my students (and myself) more reasons to stay hopeful.