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

Ansfield, Bench

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 132409351X ISBN 13 : 9781324093510

Editeur : WW Norton & Co, 2025

Synopsis

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

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning!” Supposedly uttered by announcers during the 1977 World Series as flames rose above Yankee Stadium, the phrase encapsulated a chaotic era in US history. Through the 1970s, a wave of arson coursed through American cities, levelling poor communities of colour.

However, as historian Bench Ansfield demonstrates in Born in Flames, the majority of the fires weren’t set by residents—as is usually assumed—but by landlords seeking insurance payouts. In an expansive narrative stretching from the Bronx to Britain to Brazil, Ansfield tracks the flows of money that signalled the arrival of our financialised age. From the ashes arose the modern US tenant movement and the fight for housing justice amid a new era of housing insecurity.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

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.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: WW Norton & Co
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 132409351X
• ISBN 13: 9781324093510
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 368
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible