Mike Wallace (historian)
Mike Wallace (born July 22, 1942) is an American historian. He specializes in the history of New York City, and in the history and practice of "public history". In 1998 he co-authored Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, which in 1999 won the Pulitzer Prize in History. In 2017, he published a successor volume, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919. Wallace is a Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (City University of New York), and at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Early life and education
Wallace was born in Queens in 1942. He grew up in Fresh Meadows, Valley Stream, and Great Neck. His father became a real estate salesman, then a real estate broker.
Wallace went to Columbia College in 1960. On graduating in 1964 he stayed on at Columbia for graduate studies. With historian Richard Hofstadter as his adviser, his dissertation examined the emergence of the two party system. He worked as Hofstadter’s research assistant, and in 1968 had his first article accepted by the American Historical Review.[1]
Career
The Gotham Center for New York City History is a non-profit organization founded in 2000 by Wallace to "examine and explore the city's rich history, and to make it more accessible to citizens and scholars, teachers and students, locals and out-of-towners."[2] It is part of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) and is located in the Garment District of Manhattan, New York City. Wallace created the center in order to educate and entertain the public regarding the history of the city.[2]