Photo by Nataliya Braginsky

Bench Ansfield

Bench Ansfield is an assistant professor of history at Temple University. Ansfield holds a PhD in American studies from Yale University and won the Allan Nevins Prize for the best dissertation in American history from the Society of American Historians. They live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Bench Ansfield

Books by Bench Ansfield

Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Bench Ansfield
Hardback, 2025
A revelatory account of the wave of arson-for-profit that hit American cities in the 1970s, and of the tenants who put out the fires and reclaimed their neighbourhoods
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Bench Ansfield
E Book
The explosive account of the arson wave that hit the Bronx and other American cities in the 1970s—and its legacy today.

Bench Ansfield

Books by Bench Ansfield

Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City

Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City