Person

Bench Ansfield

Bylines

FIREstorm

A conversation on the wave of landlord perpetrated arson in the Bronx during the 1970s.

by Bench Ansfield, Andrew Anastasi via History & Political Economy Project on December 9, 2025
The Disasters ‘High-Risk’ Insurance Fails to Paper Over

From the Watts Riots to 2025 wildfires, California’s FAIR Plan has stood in the way of transformative change.

by Bench Ansfield via Zócalo Public Square on October 2, 2025
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Life in the Firestorm

The 21st century American city was forged in the embers of the 1970s arson wave.

by Bench Ansfield via HNN on August 19, 2025
Edifice Complex

Restoring the term “burnout” to its roots in landlord arson puts the dispossession of poor city dwellers at its center.

by Bench Ansfield via Jewish Currents on January 3, 2023
A Theater of State Panic

Beginning in 1967, the Army built fake towns to train police and military officers in counterinsurgency.

by Bench Ansfield via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 16, 2022
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How a 50-Year-Old Study Was Misconstrued to Create Destructive Broken-Windows Policing

The harmful policy was built on a shaky foundation.

by Bench Ansfield via Made By History on December 27, 2019

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

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Cover of "Born In Flames" book.

Incendiary Schemes

A new book reveals systematic, profitable, and deadly arson schemes perpetrated by landlords and insurance companies in the Bronx.

by Charlotte E. Rosen via Protean on September 7, 2025

An apartment building on fire.

Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?

To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signaled rampant crime; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on August 18, 2025

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