Historian Mike Wallace dies at 83

Mike Wallace, a historian whose multi-volume work on New York City won the Pulitzer Prize, died on Sunday in Mexico City. He was 83. His wife, Carmen Boullosa, confirmed the death in a hospital statement. She said he had been suffering from Lewy body dementia.

Early life and education Wallace was born July 22, 1942, in Brooklyn.

He studied premed at Columbia University before switching to history after nearly failing organic chemistry. He earned three history degrees from Columbia: a bachelor's in 1964, a master's in 1966, and a doctorate in 1973. During this period he participated in campus protests against the Vietnam War.

Academic career Wallace defined radical history as bottom-up accounts that include the influence of capitalism and class distinctions. He argued that conventional histories often omitted the voices of women, Black people, and the working class. In 1976, Wallace and Edwin G.

Burrows received a $7,000 grant to write an expansive history of New York. The project eventually produced three volumes totaling about 3,500 pages.

A History of New York City to 1898" was published in 1998 to mark the centennial of Greater New York. Wallace later wrote "Greater Gotham" covering 1898 to 1919 and "Gotham at War" covering 1933 to 1945. Reviewers noted that Wallace's wit and detailed profiles made the lengthy books accessible.

He described daily horse waste in 1908 streets and how Sunday drinking rules unintentionally aided the sex trade.

Public history work Wallace directed the Radical History Forum for about ten years. " In 2000 he founded the Gotham Center for New York City History at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He also wrote "A New Deal for New York" after the September 11 attacks.