Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

In his review for The Atlantic, Timothy J. Gilfoyle called the book "the most comprehensive examination to date of the city's history prior to 1900," saying that "Gotham may rank in importance with the multi-volume works on Thomas Jefferson by Dumas Malone and on the Civil War by Allan Nevins," while Clyde Haberman in The New York Times wrote that "Burrows and Wallace offer a large-canvas portrait of a city they clearly love.... [I]t marches relentlessly across the nearly three centuries from the Dutch landing to the emergence of the unified boroughs. The countless topics include, to list but a few, New York's wars with the Indians and its pro-Crown leanings, its financial support for the slave trade and its bloody draft riots during the Civil War, the commercial imperatives and the waves of immigration that constantly redefined it." Publishers Weekly called the work "definitive." ==Subsequent volumes==

A follow-up volume, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, written by Wallace, was published in 2017 and covered New York City history for the following 20 years. Initial plans were to have the second volume's timeline go through World War II, but due to the amount of material, a third volume was announced, initially covering the period from 1920 until 1945. However, because of health issues and vastness of the time period, Wallace wrote the third volume to only cover the period of World War II, skipping the 1920s and the early 1930s. Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945 was published in 2025, the final volume in this series written by Wallace. ==Naming==

"Gotham" as a term for New York City was coined by Washington Irving in an 1807 November issue of his literary magazine, Salmagundi, based on the legends of the English village of Gotham, whose inhabitants are known for their folly. ==Journal reviews==

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