Historian of New York City
Remembering those we recently lost
Plant the first tree in their honor
Key moments and achievements from Mike Wallace's life.
Mike was born
· Mexico City, Mexico
Degree
Completed his Ph.D. in history at Columbia University with a dissertation titled Ideologies of Party in the Antebellum Republic, advised by Richard Hofstadter and Eric McKitrick. He had earned his B.A. from Columbia College in 1964 and his M.A. in 1966.
Degree
Completed his Ph.D. in history at Columbia University with a dissertation titled Ideologies of Party in the Antebellum Republic, advised by Richard Hofstadter and Eric McKitrick. He had earned his B.A. from Columbia College in 1964 and his M.A. in 1966.
Project launch
Received a Rabinowitz Foundation grant for a history of the United States as a capitalist society, then partnered with fellow historian Edwin G. Burrows. Aided by a 1980 National Endowment for the Humanities grant, the pair later narrowed the project to a history of New York City, beginning what became a three-volume, five-decade undertaking.
Project launch
Received a Rabinowitz Foundation grant for a history of the United States as a capitalist society, then partnered with fellow historian Edwin G. Burrows. Aided by a 1980 National Endowment for the Humanities grant, the pair later narrowed the project to a history of New York City, beginning what became a three-volume, five-decade undertaking.
Award
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, written with Edwin G. Burrows and published by Oxford University Press in November 1998, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. The book also received the Municipal Art Society Brendan Gill Prize.
Award
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, written with Edwin G. Burrows and published by Oxford University Press in November 1998, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. The book also received the Municipal Art Society Brendan Gill Prize.
Founding
Established the center at the CUNY Graduate Center to bring New York City history to a wide public, later assembling an advisory board that included Martin Scorsese, Pete Hamill, and Kenneth T. Jackson. He was named a Guggenheim Fellow the same year.
Founding
Established the center at the CUNY Graduate Center to bring New York City history to a wide public, later assembling an advisory board that included Martin Scorsese, Pete Hamill, and Kenneth T. Jackson. He was named a Guggenheim Fellow the same year.
Event
The center's inaugural festival opened less than a month after the September 11 attacks and drew 5,000 people over its opening weekend to more than 100 panels, roundtables, exhibits, and screenings, including an onstage conversation between Wallace and Martin Scorsese.
Event
The center's inaugural festival opened less than a month after the September 11 attacks and drew 5,000 people over its opening weekend to more than 100 panels, roundtables, exhibits, and screenings, including an onstage conversation between Wallace and Martin Scorsese.
Publication
Oxford University Press published Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, the second volume of the series. That year Wallace received the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York History and the inaugural Federal Hall Award for History.
Publication
Oxford University Press published Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, the second volume of the series. That year Wallace received the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York History and the inaugural Federal Hall Award for History.
Publication
Oxford University Press published Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945, closing the Gotham series 49 years after the project began. On October 8, 2025, hundreds gathered at the CUNY Graduate Center to celebrate the volume of nearly a thousand pages.
Publication
Oxford University Press published Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945, closing the Gotham series 49 years after the project began. On October 8, 2025, hundreds gathered at the CUNY Graduate Center to celebrate the volume of nearly a thousand pages.
Mike Wallace passed away
