Mike Wallace is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the director of the Gotham Center for New York City History. He is the co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.

Mr Wallace's lively style turns an invaluable work of reference into a gripping read. His swift portraits of New York's heroes and villains are vivid and memorable. And like every great work of history, his book casts light on the present: he writes lucidly, for example, of Puerto Rico's economic travails in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war, his account of American colonialism still resonant in 2017. The book is enriched by those who lived in tenements, skyscrapers or Fifth Avenue palaces. Like the city itself, Greater Gotham contains multitudes.

• PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS (1898-1904); PART TWO: CONSOLIDATIONS AND CONNECTIONS (1898-1914); PART THREE: CONTRADICTIONS AND CONFRONTATIONS (1900-1914); PART FOUR: WAR (1914-1919)

Mike Wallace is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the director of the Gotham Center for New York City History. He is the co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.

Mr Wallace's lively style turns an invaluable work of reference into a gripping read. His swift portraits of New York's heroes and villains are vivid and memorable. And like every great work of history, his book casts light on the present: he writes lucidly, for example, of Puerto Rico's economic travails in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war, his account of American colonialism still resonant in 2017. The book is enriched by those who lived in tenements, skyscrapers or Fifth Avenue palaces. Like the city itself, Greater Gotham contains multitudes.

• PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS (1898-1904); PART TWO: CONSOLIDATIONS AND CONNECTIONS (1898-1914); PART THREE: CONTRADICTIONS AND CONFRONTATIONS (1900-1914); PART FOUR: WAR (1914-1919)