Distinguished service and scholarship in urban history.

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 argues forcefully that the arson wave of the 1970s was about racism, capitalism, and the insurance...

An 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...

Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction

ACLS warmly congratulates past fellows Brian Goldstone and Bench Ansfield on being recognized by the Pulitzer Prizes.

Laura B. McGrath’s new book looks at how the largely invisible work of literary agents shapes American literature.

That 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.

The borough's arson wave in the 1970s was caused by financial forces and political priorities that continue to hold power in New York City.

I’ve been listening to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On album on repeat lately—not just because it’s the best album ever made, but also because the question of what’s going on has been ever on my mind, e...