Born in Flames – The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City - Bench Ansfield

“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... Zobrazit více