I don't quite have words yet. I'm stunned, grateful, disoriented. My deepest, deepest thanks to the five families without whom this book would not exist. It has been the honor of my life to know and learn from you.

Holy smokes

“If we are to truly come to grips with contemporary fiction, literary agents & their logic of fit are essential parts of the story. While Middlemen may concentrate on the powerful few who do it best, McGrath offers a new & important way to orient our understanding of the novel today.” More at LARB!

Congratulations, and well deserved. I enjoyed the book very much, especially having covered the city in the ashen '80s aftermath.

My review of @benchansfield.bsky.social’s brilliant history of arson is now unpaywalled @dissentmag.bsky.social:

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.

I know our names basically sound the same, but I could never have imagined this. Born in Flames has won the 2026 Anisfield-Wolf Award in Nonfiction. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more honored. Til housing stability is not a luxury. @wwnorton.com

If you’re @oah.org in Philly come hear @benchansfield.bsky.social @rbatzell.bsky.social @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social Patrick Chung and I discuss our new books on race and capitalism in the US and the world this afternoon (1:30-3pm)

Please read @charmainechua.bsky.social on the warehouse as not so much a space of storage as it is a switch (turning off and on movement of capital and goods) and a trap (for low wage workers) and, now, a space of literal DHS incarceration. placesjournal.org/article/the-...

SOLD OUT

Please join us for a *free* student-led walking tour of the Columbia Ave uprising, which coursed through North Philly in Aug 1964 in response to police violence April 20th at noon RSVP and details at link below

Just read a great passage last night about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Bench Ansfield's @benchansfield.bsky.social "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City."

Who is talking to the 2 million people who have lost their insurance because the subsidies weren't renewed?

*breathing into a paper bag*

I'm out of words here

Tonight at IPK: @benchansfield.bsky.social discusses their book, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City, with Ingrid Gould Ellen and @tomsugrue.bsky.social.

Fantastic @ipk.bsky.social talk & discussion tonight on @benchansfield.bsky.social's BORN IN FLAMES, with @tomsugrue.bsky.social & Ingrid Gould Ellen, hosted by @ericklinenberg.bsky.social. Looking forward to reading!

NYC! Tomorrow night @ipk.bsky.social!!

Join IPK on March 4 for an event with @benchansfield.bsky.social. They will discuss their book, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City, with Ingrid Gould Ellen and @tomsugrue.bsky.social. ipk.nyu.edu/events/book-...

NYC! I’ll be discussing BORN IN FLAMES with these two legends on 3/4

Join IPK on March 4 for an event with @benchansfield.bsky.social. They will discuss their book, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City, with @jfernandez1202.bsky.social and @tomsugrue.bsky.social. ipk.nyu.edu/events/book-...

I'm looking forward to this Zoom book event next week with @marksouther.bsky.social and @benchansfield.bsky.social. Would love to see some of you there! Registration link here: princeton.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

🏆 Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard (@niemanfoundation.bsky.social) have announced the 2026 shortlists for the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project, honoring outstanding works of American nonfiction in progress and in print.

Not sure why I was unable to tag Bench above, but everyone should buy and read their brilliant book.

Good news in ghastly times

i think this more than anything is what miller wants. vast detention camps with all of the suffering and death that means.

They arrested at 21 year old too along with Don Lemon and Georgia Fort - share.inquirer.com/ebzCYi [gift link]

Go Fund Me about the young person arrested on Monday in MN along with Lemon and Fort.

Tonight!

Minneapolis, MN - A view from the inside entrance to the lobby of the hotel where the noise demonstration against ICE is happening.

I've read most of the scholarship about US policing since the early 20th century. What you learn from this is that violence is inherent. You cannot "separate" out violence from policing. Police in the U.S. are violence workers.

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.

Philly about to show its true colors

Baltimore! Join the great Nathan Connolly and me at @redemmas.org on January 29th!!

Very grateful for this smart and far-reaching review of Born in Flames by @david-helps.bsky.social in @dissentmag.bsky.social dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

Excited to offer this teachers writing workshop for educators to come together (virtually) to reflect, learn, and write about what’s going on—and to work toward producing a piece for publication. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

One reason I favor impeaching Noem is because it's a political process for a political problem. No, this will not stop ICE enforcement action but YES it would be an opportunity to educate the public about DHS & perhaps begin to lay a foundation for dismantling it.

I am impeaching Secretary Kristi Noem, who is an incompetent leader and a disgrace to our democracy. She wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area and has brought her reign of terror to Minneapolis. One of her rogue ICE agents shot and killed an innocent woman today. It must come to an end.

Thinking about LA today, 1 year from the #LAfires. As a colleague and I wrote shortly afterwards, "only in the aftermath of these fires that their true toll will emerge..." jacobin.com/2025/01/la-f...

Larger context on the ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota: Fed. officers have fatally shot at least 3 other people in the last 5 months & wounded or threatened others. We describe a few of the recent incidents and patterns we've noticed here. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/07/i...

everyday is a good day to hear Pat Parker <3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuoZ...

3/ @realLandsEnd & @city.bsky.social spoke to Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social about “riot prone areas,” moral hazard, how landlords burned the Bronx in the 1970s, and their new book Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City www.patreon.com/posts/best-o...

I'm 9 pages into @benchansfield.bsky.social's Born Into Flames and already mesmerized by the storytelling. Who knew a book about property insurance could be so captivating! PS All hail @littlefreelibrary.bsky.social, which brought this gem to my hands.

Bench Ansfield (@benchansfield.bsky.social, Temple) then introduced an exciting new project on catastrophe bonds, climate change, and the politics of risk

The week in review: a call to join the ranks of the @a-lpe.bsky.social, an interview with @benchansfield.bsky.social about the business of arson, and a new entry by Amna Akbar in our symposium on Free Gifts. Plus, the best of Law and Political Economy from around the web 👇🧵

"[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

New interview! Andrew Anastasi and I discuss the emotional logic of insurance and how racial capitalism is being misconstrued in the present -- as made manifest in some reviews of my book. Grateful for this partnership between @hpe-project.bsky.social and @lpeblog.bsky.social!

New interview! Andrew Anastasi and I discuss the emotional logic of insurance and how racial capitalism is being misconstrued in the present -- as made manifest in some reviews of my book. Grateful for this partnership between @hpe-project.bsky.social and @lpeblog.bsky.social!

“it turns out that insurance is utterly mesmerizing, and that’s in part because insurers quantify emotions like fear, hope, and mourning. They can offer an almost transparent window into the affective logic of capitalism.