LAMAMIMET

Mike Wallace was an American historian renowned for his work on the history of New York City and the practice of public history. Born in Queens in 1942, he grew up in various parts of New York before attending Columbia College and later pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University. Under the mentorship of historian Richard Hofstadter, Wallace began his academic career in the late 1960s, contributing to documentary histories and participating in the student strike at Columbia University. In 1971, he joined John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he spent much of his career. Wallace played a key role in the Radical History Forum and helped transform the Radical Historians' Newsletter into the Radical History Review. He gained widespread recognition for co-authoring 'Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898' with Edwin G. Burrows, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1999. He later authored 'Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919' in 2017 and 'Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945' in 2025. Wallace also wrote 'Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory', which explored how history is presented to the public. He was a Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Wallace was married to Mexican author and playwright Carmen Boullosa. His previous marriages included unions with Nancy Greenough, Elizabeth Fee, and Hope Cooke, the former Queen of Sikkim.