iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Holy smokes

Pulitzer Prizes 2026 listing the two finalists for the History category, including the poster's book, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City, along with Scott Anderson's King of Kings.

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

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.

Photo of author on a rooftop holding livestream video via cell phone

Text from LA Times article:
award in the history category for "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and theRemaking of the American City," which exposes a pattern of landlords setting residential fires to collect insurance payouts, they said, "It's a scary time to be a historian in the United States."

"Our field, like so many other fields, is under attack," Ansfield said. "To understand the crises in front of us, we have to understand our history."

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Good news in ghastly times

Image shows 5 nominees for the LA Times Book Prize in History, including OP's book Born in Flames.

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nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I don’t feel like enough people are aware that the School District of Philadelphia is planning to close 20 schools and relocate 8 additional schools. If this plan is approved, about 5,000 students would see their schools closed and another 2,800 would have their school location moved.

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Death Panel @deathpanel.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

In our latest, we speak with Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore about the rapid escalation of police forces and carceral logics on US streets and why abolition is the only way www.patreon.com/posts/149118...

patreon.com

The Anti-State State w/ Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore (01/26/26) | The Death Panel

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nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

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.

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The History and Political Economy Project @hpe-project.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

"[P]ublic housing was the only type of housing spared by the inferno… What would it mean to take that finding seriously?" @benchansfield.bsky.social on implications of the 1970s arson wave for the housing justice movement today: www.hpeproject.org/blog/firestorm

hpeproject.org

FIREstorm — History & Political Economy Project

Bench Ansfield in conversation with Andrew Anastasi

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

In disbelief. The NYT named Born in Flames one of 100 Notable Books of 2025

Screenshot of NYT citation of Born in Flames: "This elegant book dismantles conventional wisdom regarding the fires that ravaged the Bronx and other communities of color in the 1970s. Ansfield shows that most of these fires, which have always been blamed on tenants, were in fact set by landlords; racist housing and insurance practices made it more profitable to burn buildings than to rent them."

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Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

U.S. District Judge April Perry says it comes down to a "credibility determination." "I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration's] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS' perception of events are simply unreliable."

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

NYC come thru!! I'll be doing two BORN IN FLAMES launch events next week 10/16 and 10/18. Plz spread the word! (links to follow)

Two posters for the Born in Flames launch.

OCTOBER 16 // 7pm // $7-15
Maysles Documentary Center
Screening of Decade of Fire + Book Panel with organizer and writer Shellyne Rodriguez, director Vivian Vázquez, and Elliot Liu of Take Back the Bronx

OCTOBER 18 // 2:30pm // $15-20
Museum of the City of New York
In Conversation with Ritti Singh (Housing Justice for All and NYS Tenant Bloc) and curator of social activism Sarah Seidman

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Zócalo Public Square @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

By leaning on insurance-based solutions to deep-seated societal problems, California has put itself on a path toward repeating the mistakes of the past, warns Temple University historian @benchansfield.bsky.social. zps.la/4nuhIdv

zps.la

The Disasters ‘High-Risk’ Insurance Fails to Paper Over | Essay

From the Watts Riots to 2025 Wildfires, California’s FAIR Plan Has Stood in the Way of Transformative Change

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

After the Palisades & Eaton fires, insurers leaned on a program designed to respond to the '60s uprisings. The climate crisis is being hedged with the same faulty tools created for the urban crisis. I wrote about that inheritance for @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social and @sfchronicle.com

Screenshot of the SF Chronicle with the headline "How the Watts Uprising in LA led to the state's FAIR insurance plan"

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amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

A man was just chased and arrested outside of the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago. When legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild asked why, an agent threatened to arrest them too.

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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

🚨 New directive NSPM-7 targets "anti-capitalism," “anti-Christian,” and “anti-American" opinions as indicators of extremist violence, authorizing an army of 4,000 counter-terrorism officers to prevent crimes that haven't happened: www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nsp...

kenklippenstein.com

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”

New order targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinions

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 25/09/2025

Trump just signed an illegal executive order designed to target his political opposition by designating them terrorists and using the DOJ, IRS, FBI, and the JTTF to investigate and charge liberal organizations, funders, members, and protesters. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

whitehouse.gov

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

How can the housing struggles of the 1970s guide the tenant movement in the present? @city.bsky.social breaks it down in this electrifying review of BORN IN FLAMES for @newrepublic.com If you want to better understand why cities chose police funding over habitability, read this.

Screenshot of Tracy Rosenthal's review in The New Republic of Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City.

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nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

“But what makes this parallel feel most apt is how nervous I am about drawing it.” - M. Gessen www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | This Is the Feeling of Losing a Country. I Know It Well.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

what ezra doesn't seem willing to accept is that charlie kirk was part of a political movement that does not think that "we are going to have to live here with each other" and is fact very interested in the elimination and/or subjugation of many, many people

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nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

From the 2024 study that was just removed from DOJ’s website: “Militant, nationalistic, violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.” newrepublic.com/post/200537/...

newrepublic.com

DOJ Quietly Deletes Study on Politics of Domestic Terrorists

The Justice Department has taken down a study that proves Republicans’ entire narrative wrong about left-wing violence.

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

"I just want to say, go birds, fuck ICE and free Palestine," "Hacks" star Hannah Einbinder at the #Emmys

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Photo captured just before Sal drooled all over the book review of Born in Flames in the Sunday NYT

A copy of today’s Sunday Times Book Review featuring Brian Goldstone’s review of BORN IN FLAMES. Alongside it is a copy of the book.

A beautiful black and brown dog looks at the newspaper featuring the BORN IN FLAMES review.

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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

America is now a place where a prominent cable news host can openly call for homeless people to be murdered — and face zero consequences.

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emily blight 🐦‍⬛ @threnody.northsky.social · 12/09/2025

hi, cis folks! the WSJ endangered trans lives with false reporting yesterday. it’s still accepted as truth by many, regardless of it being false. the article’s still up with a little note. it needs full retraction. it's not even a phone call—it's email. you can do this. contact info below.🧵⬇️

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article detailed how an internal law enforcement bulletin said that ammunition recovered following the Charlie Kirk shooting was engraved with expressions of "transgender and anti-fascist ideology." Justice Department officials later urged caution about the bulletin by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, saying it may not accurately reflect the messages on the ammunition, and the article was updated Thursday to reflect that.

This editor's note was appended on Friday, Sept. 12, after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the engravings included one that said "Hey fascist!" along with other messages and symbols. He gave no indication that the ammunition included any transgender references.

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emily blight 🐦‍⬛ @threnody.northsky.social · 09/09/2025

hi, cis folks! if you said you’d stand with trans people, we need you now. the FY26 budget bill gets a vote by 9/30. the GOP wants to jam a ban on federal funding for ALL health services that provide trans care for ANY AGE. we need you to call senators: reps.fyi more info & script downthread.🧵

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

BORN IN FLAMES is a NYT Editors' Choice title

Screenshot of the NYT website featuring Born in Flames by Bench Ansfield and Black Moses by Caleb Gayle

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Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich “Born in Flames,” by the historian Bench Ansfield, recounts how the wave of urban arson in the 1970s devastated poor communities while enriching building owners. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

nytimes.com

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

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Nick Turse @nickturse.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

“The daily cost of the D.C. troop deployment is more than six times what it would cost to operate affordable housing for D.C.’s entire unhoused population. The government’s priorities could not be more clear," said @hannahomestead.bsky.social of @nationalpriorities.bsky.social

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Kate Redburn @kredburn.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

The astounding triumph Born in Flames by @benchansfield.bsky.social is out! The rare work of history that changes common sense - in this case the burning of the Bronx and other cities in the 70s - while also making revelatory moves for theory and historiography. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

nytimes.com

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Can't express how much this review of BORN IN FLAMES by Brian Goldstone in the NYT means to me. Goldstone's THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US is among the most important books about housing in the US in the 21st cent. Thanks @brian-goldstone.bsky.social for this stunning review. BORN IN FLAMES is out now!

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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

During the 1970s, an arson wave ravaged poor communities across the US. Some lost 80% of their housing. Residents were blamed. In reality, landlords—paid by insurers and enabled by the state—drove this arson-for-profit epidemic.   I reviewed @benchansfield.bsky.social's revelatory BORN IN FLAMES:

nytimes.com

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Exhilarating for BORN IN FLAMES to receive a feature review in the pages of the @newyorker.com. Immerwahr and I come to different conclusions about racial capitalism and the burning years, but I hope our debate will be fruitful for others. -->

Screenshot of New Yorker article titled "Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?" by Daniel Immerwahr

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Getting "greedy landlords" printed in the NY Post is surreal. Never thought I'd be in the tabloids.

New York Post headline reading: "Greedy landlords - not Bronx residents - were really to blame for the fires that ravaged NYC in the '70s and '80s: new book"

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Less than one week until the publication of BORN IN FLAMES! It makes a huge difference if you *preorder* before 8/19! Get the book from any outlet and my press will send you these 4 beautiful stickers once you fill out the form copied below.

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

“The hand that torched the Bronx and scores of other cities,” Ansfield writes, “was that of a landlord impelled by the market and guided by the state.” Dan Piepenbring on Born in Flames, by Bench Ansfield (@benchansfield.bsky.social).

buff.ly

New Books, by Dan Piepenbring

We've recently updated our website to make signing in easier and more secure

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nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

The theme for my 10th grade English class will be “on being human.” We’re reading Sula, Parable of the Sower, There, There, and Macbeth. Seeking short texts (poetry, essays, short stories, etc) to read during the first week to introduce the theme. Drop your favorite on being human texts please!

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

The BORN IN FLAMES stickers are here and they’re beautiful! Made in collaboration with my dear friend, Jenna Peters-Golden, + an original by Mary Tremonte @justseeds.bsky.social, these will be sent to you free if you order BORN IN FLAMES by Aug 19th and submit here: tinyurl.com/4nx7rcv8

Four stickers against a pink background: 1) “we are born in flames” written against fire, 2) two arms clutching one another with “your risk is my risk” etched upon them, 3) a woman in a bathtub with the words “my home is not your asset” written on the tub, 4) an apartment building with a fire escape and clothesline, tomato and sunflower plant, and residents waving to each other, reading “tenants built this city”

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Excited to announce a sticker giveaway for BORN IN FLAMES. Preorder by 8/19, fill out this form, and receive 4 beautiful stickers for free!! Art made in collaboration with Jenna Peters-Golden + a Mary Tremonte original @justseeds.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4nx7rcv8

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Silky Shah @silkys13.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

This new policy basically means all immigrants have no due process rights and can be detained indefinitely. Once again like the student detentions and like CECOT, the Trump administration is using immigration detention, which both parties built up, as a testing ground for its authoritarianism...

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Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · 15/07/2025

This is the one that breaks it. What even is the point of Congress if the legislature can pass a budget but the executive doesn’t have to follow it? We officially don’t have three branches anymore. We have a solitary tyrant.

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Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

First book, first garden! Just got my author copies of BORN IN FLAMES, out from @wwnorton.com on August 19th.

I am sitting in front of flower garden holding a copy of my new book, BORN IN FLAMES.

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nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

How do I teach if parents can opt students out of knowing that I exist?

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza. Truly an atrocity built on atrocity. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid
IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes

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