Mike Wallace (born July 22, 1942) is an American
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
. He specializes in the history of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, 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
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
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
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...
), and at the
Graduate Center, CUNY
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...
.
Early life and education
Wallace was born in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
in 1942. The family moved to San Francisco in 1943 and returned to New York in 1949. He grew up in
Fresh Meadows, Queens
Fresh Meadows is a neighborhood in the northeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. Fresh Meadows used to be part of the broader town of Flushing and is bordered to the north by the Horace Harding Expressway; to the west by Pomon ...
,
Valley Stream
Valley Stream is a village in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population in the Village of Valley Stream was 37,511 at the 2010 census.
The incorporated Village of Valley Stream is within the Town of Hempstead, ...
, and
Great Neck
Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, and Russell Gardens, and a number of unincorp ...
.
Wallace went to
Columbia College in 1960. On graduating in 1964 he stayed on at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
for graduate studies. With historian
Richard Hofstadter
Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century.
Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. Rejecting his earlier histo ...
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''.
In 1968 Wallace took part in the student strike at Columbia University. In 1969 he and Hofstadter wrote a documentary history of violence in the U.S.
Career
In 1970, he taught for a year at
Franconia College
Franconia College was a small experimental liberal arts college in Franconia, New Hampshire, United States. It opened in 1963 in Dow Academy and the site of the Forest Hills Hotel on Agassiz Road, and closed in 1978, after years of declining enro ...
. In 1971, Wallace accepted a teaching position at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal art ...
.
In the early 1970s, Wallace began working with other historians of his generation who were “broadening the scope of American history by adding the voices of those previously excluded, such as women, blacks and the working class.” In 1973, Wallace helped launch, and for the next ten years directed, the Radical History Forum. He also participated in transforming the ''Radical Historians’ Newsletter'', started in 1973, into the ''
Radical History Review'', by 1975, and then served as its editorial coordinator.
During the 1980s, Wallace wrote essays about the ways history gets presented – or misrepresented – to the general public, outside of schools and universities. In 1996, these pieces were collected in a book called ''Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory''.
In 1998, he co-authored (with
Edwin G. Burrows
Edwin G. "Ted" Burrows (May 15, 1943 – May 4, 2018) was a Distinguished Professor of History at Brooklyn College. He is the co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898'' (1998), and author of ''Forgotte ...
) ''
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898'', which in 1999 won the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
in History.
In 2000, Wallace founded the Gotham Center for New York City History, a non-profit organization.
["About"]
on the Gotham Center website It is part of the Graduate Center of the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...
(CUNY)
The successor volume, ''Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919'', was published on October 2, 2017.
Personal life
Wallace is married to Mexican author and playwright
Carmen Boullosa. He was formerly married, in December 1969, to Nancy Greenough; in May 1973 to
Elizabeth Fee and in October 1987 to historian and former Queen of
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Sil ...
,
Hope Cooke
Hope Cooke (born June 24, 1940) was the "Gyalmo" () ( Queen Consort) of the 12th Chogyal (King) of Sikkim, Palden Thondup Namgyal. Their wedding took place in March 1963. She was termed ''Her Highness The Crown Princess of Sikkim'' and became th ...
.
[Hope Cooke, ''Time Change'' (Simon & Schuster, 1981). Francine du Plessis Gray, "The Fairy Tale that Turned Nightmare," ''New York Times'', March 8, 1981.]
References
External links
The Gotham Center website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Mike
Pulitzer Prize for History winners
1942 births
Living people
Historians of New York City
City University of New York faculty
John Jay College of Criminal Justice faculty
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Writers from New York City
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American historians
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
Historians from New York (state)
People from Valley Stream, New York
People from Great Neck, New York
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni