Reading Gotham: Mike Wallace and New York's Story

Mike Wallace has been a leading historian of New York City. He co-authored Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 with Edwin G. Burrows; the book was published in 1998 and won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1999. The work was based on more than twenty years of research and it covers the city up to the 1898 consolidation of the five boroughs.

Wallace is a distinguished professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at the CUNY Graduate Center, and he founded the Gotham Center for New York City History. His writing combines social, economic and cultural history, and his approach has been used widely in teaching. Although the first volume appeared in 1998, Wallace later published Greater Gotham in 2017 and Gotham at War in 2025, completing a long project.

While many readers praise his detailed narrative, other scholars have debated interpretations; nevertheless, the books have been influential and are used in courses about urban history since they synthesize many topics into a single narrative. They are often assigned in university classes and public events have been held to discuss the volumes.