Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families [Paperback]

J. Anthony Lukas (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 12, 1986

Winner of 3 different awards, this is a story of the busing crisis in Boston.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The climax of this humane account of 10 years in Boston that began with news of Martin Luther King's assassination, is a watershed moment in the city's modern history--the 1974 racist riots that followed the court-ordered busing of kids to integrate the schools. To bring understanding to that moment, Lukas, a former New York Times journalist, focuses on two working-class families, headed by an Irish-American widow and an African-American mother, and on the middle-class family of a white liberal couple. Lukas goes beyond stereotypes, carefully grounding each perspective in its historical roots, whether in the antebellum South, or famine-era Ireland. In the background is the cast of public figures--including Judge Garrity, Mayor White, and Cardinal Cushing--with cameo roles in this disturbing history that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Book Award, this book examines school integration in Boston from the vantage points of three familiesone black and two white. PW stated that Common Ground is "highly readable and brings us as close as we are likely to get to the average person's experiences of urban racial tensions."
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (August 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394746163
• ISBN-13: 978-0394746166
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding November 20, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I got to experience the events in this book firsthand. Our house in Hyde Park overlooked Hyde Park High School, and the three kids in my family still at home in September, 1974, and affected by busing, were in the 9th, 8th, and 5th grades. I will never forget how forced busing turned our world and that of our neighbors upside-down. So many incidents went unreported so as not to inflame tensions even more. I put off reading Mr. Lukas' book for years, but now that I have, I 'm in awe of his incredible effort. I feel that I personally owe him a great debt, because he gave these events a place in history where they deserve to be. For many years, busing was a taboo topic in conversation and in the newspapers. Strangely enough, after 24 years, the court's decisions are now being overturned, using the same arguments in reverse... To me, busing will always rankle as a reminder of the hypocrisy of the suburbs, where I now live in order to avoid- you guessed it- the now less-than-adequate Boston schools.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE TRUTH, WITHOUT BLAME March 11, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

As one who actually lived through these terrible, terrible times in Boston, this book is one of the only pieces of journalism that doesn't portray white, working class Boston as the bad, ugly racists, but rather shows that the children of Boston were used as pawns by well-heeled suburbanites and a lofty judge who walked away and then pointed the finger. It was always, always about class and not race and the whole busing debacle nearly ruined a great American city. Stopping the desegregation at the City limits was the biggest mistake ever made and the people of Boston simply refused to abide by it. Sure, people were accused of being racist and certainly some ugly things happened, but to act as though discrimination ended at the borders of Boston was ridiculous, which is now acknowledged. Hopefully the suburbs will not be let off the hook again.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best nonfiction book I have ever read March 14, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is a magnificant work -- the best work of nonfiction I have ever read. It captures the essence of the problems facing urban America in a compelling, meticulous story. It is about America, the world, race and racism, class and elitism, sociology, education, psychology -- it has it all. And it is breathtakingly entertaining.