Bench Ansfield, assistant professor of history in the College of Liberal Arts, has been named a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist for their book, Born in Flames. In addition, Julie K. Brown, KLN ’87, and Allison Beck, KLN ’24, were recognized for their work on the staffs of the Miami Herald and WLRN.
Bench Ansfield has been named a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist for their book, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City.
Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg
Since its publication in September 2025, Assistant Professor of History Bench Ansfield’s debut book Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City has garnered massive attention. It has been awarded the 2026 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History, the 2026 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction, the 2026 Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History, the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians, the New York City Book Award and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia Literary Award.
Now, Ansfield has been named a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist in History.
“The attention this book has received has been quite dizzying,” said Ansfield. “I did hope that the book would reach beyond the academy and fellow historians, and it’s been very gratifying to hear about readers finding it. I think the reason why this story has resonated is because it taps into some of the most pressing issues of our current moment like housing affordability and the widespread precarity that marks American cities today.”
Based on a decade of research, the book details the hidden history behind a wave of landlord-led arson that cost tens of thousands of families their homes, and it documents the tenant-led resistance movements to end the firestorm. While Ansfield began the project that became Born in Flames when writing their PhD dissertation at Yale University, much of the work of creating the book happened during their first year as a faculty member at Temple.
“Temple is an incredible place to do research on urban history,” Ansfield shared. “I’ve benefited from working alongside other scholars and students interested in cities and urban change. The intellectual community among urbanists at Temple is robust, and my colleagues in the History Department and Honors Program are world-class scholars. They’re the kind of colleagues whose voices I welcome into my head while I write.”
Through robust scholarship and elegant storytelling, Born in Flames argues that throughout the 1970s a wave of arson that destroyed Black and Brown neighborhoods in New York City and across the United States was instigated by landlords. Residents of these largely working-class and poor neighborhoods were accused starting the fires, but Ansfield corrects this narrative by demonstrating how the most destructive fires were set by landlords looking to collect insurance payments, not unruly tenants. Ansfield documents not only the historic cover-up but how the residents organized to fight back against the false accusations and protect their communities.
“Bench Ansfield has produced a work of significant historical importance, which is deeply researched and urgently relevant,” says Interim Provost David Boardman. “As a journalist, I recognize exceptional work that reveals a chapter of American history that continues to shape cities today. This is an extraordinary contribution to American history and public discourse. Temple is so proud to have a faculty member and two alumni who are being recognized as finalists for the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes.”
Ansfield is not the only Temple community member to receive Pulitzer recognition this year. The staffs of the Miami Herald and WLRN were named Finalists in Local Reporting, including Allison Beck, KLN ’24. Through a dynamic and data-driven series, the team reported on the human cost behind the high-speed Brightline railroad, which has killed more people per mile than any other passenger rail system. The Herald’s reporting prompted the release of safety funding and new crossing standards.
In addition, Julie K. Brown, KLN ’87 was awarded a special citation from the Pulitzer committee for her reporting that exposed the case against Jeffrey Epstein and his abuse of young women. Her year-long series, Perversion of Justice, published in 2018, revealed how Epstein’s crimes were shielded from justice and exposed his powerful network of associates and enablers. Brown’s work was recognized for giving voice to victims and igniting a global reckoning over power and morality.
