Today is the anniversary of a fire that destroyed 20% of New York City, on Sept. 21, 1776. You’ve probably never heard of this fire, which is what the Founding Fathers intended.

Brooklyn College professor Benjamin Carp talked about the 1776 fire that burned down much of New York City shortly after the British took the city during the Revolutionary War. The Fraunces Tavern ...

The Great New York Fire of 1776 makes us rethink many of our assumptions about the American Revolution and New York City’s role in it. Carp presents the reader with a violent, confused account ...

In “The Great New York Fire of 1776,” Benjamin L. Carp argues that Americans, not the British, deliberately started the blaze.

New York City in September 1776. Brooklyn College professor Benjamin Carp talked about the circumstances in New York City in 1776 and the clash between the British and American troops prior to the ...