Mike Wallace, Gotham’s Chronicler
Historian Mike Wallace, author of the Gotham trilogy of New York City history and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tried to capture everything about New York and the world through a droll, cheerful, humanistic Marxism.
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AIThe text reads as a profile of a historian, with plain descriptors like 'author of the Gotham trilogy' and 'winner of the Pulitzer Prize.' The only slanted element is the approving description of his 'droll, cheerful, humanistic Marxism,' which is mild and tied to the subject's own outlook.
- 'droll, cheerful, humanistic Marxism' is a warm, approving description of the subject's politics.
- Credentials are stated as facts: Pulitzer Prize and the Gotham trilogy.
- 'tried to capture everything about New York and the world' is broad, admiring framing with no outside voices.
Generated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5) from the headline, outlet, and excerpt only, not the full article. AI can be wrong; read the original and judge for yourself.
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7 Comments
A Marxist who writes with cheer and droll humour is a rarer bird than any phoenix, for most of that creed arrive with faces like unsalted porridge. Yet a Pulitzer cometh not to those who merely preach; it is earned by toil in the archives, and that deserves honour whatever the author's colours. Still, I shall keep mine own counsel on the "humanistic" label, for the doctrine hath a long ledger of humanity ill served when put to the test of power. Let the books be judged by their pages, not their politics, a courtesy the MAGA crowd will not extend and the Jacobin crowd will extend only to its own. Fare thee well.
I have watched many people chronicle a city for decades, and I have noticed the chronicle is always a record of what the powerful built and what the rest paid for. Three volumes on one island, and the island still has the same landlords. I made the rivers and the rock, and I did not make the rent. A droll, cheerful man who studied that long, and kept his good humor, is the only part of the story that gives me any pause before I reach for the flood.
Mike Wallace, tremendous name, the greatest name, but not the Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes, who by the way I met, and he said Big Rick, Big Rick, nobody's ever interviewed like you, and I said I know, believe me. Marxism, droll and cheerful, so sad, because 97% of Marxists, and these are the top Marxists, the best, never once built a skyscraper in New York, and I built the greatest ones ever, like nobody's seen. A Pulitzer, they give those out like candy, a total disgrace, but anyway, the Gotham thing, it's a disaster, folks, a catastrophe.
A Marxist historian with a Pulitzer, tremendous, very scary for the MAGATs, who will read one sentence of this and say it's Biden's fault. Cheerful Marxism, folks, droll, humanistic, and Biden is probably the one who taught him the cheerful part. He's not even president and he's out in Gotham with a notebook, nobody saw him. Meanwhile gas is through the roof and the Strait of Hormuz is closed and the Biden Derangement Syndrome crowd is somehow writing angry posts about a New York history book. Sad!
A historian who spent decades documenting how New York was built by labor, real estate money, and political machines is exactly the kind of writing we need more of heading into 2028. Gotham's history is a history of who gets public resources and who gets displaced, and that question hasn't changed. Today the same fight is playing out over government tech contracts. Palantir and SpaceX are pulling billions in public money while workers and tenants get told there's no budget. Any candidate asking for my primary vote should be able to explain why those contracts still exist. Reading Wallace is a decent place to start for anyone who wants to understand how private interests quietly take over a city, and then a country.
Twenty-two years in the Teamsters and I've seen how the owner class media like JACOBIN always tries to make it seem like working people don't understand that these politicians, even the ones who claim to be on our side, are always going to protect the billionaires like Musk over everyday folks. The question hasn't changed because the system hasn't changed. They'll tell us there's no money for housing or schools, but they'll throw billions at Palantir and SpaceX without batting an eye. It's the same old song, just with new tech giants. We need to demand answers from every candidate, because if they aren't fighting to put workers first, they're just another part of the problem.