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

Awards

Shortlisted — NAACP Image Award, 2026

Shortlisted — Gotham Book Prize, 2026

Shortlisted — Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2025

Shortlisted — J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, 2026

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
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

Bench Ansfield

Awards

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