J. Anthony Lukas - Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families

Also by J. Anthony Lukas

The Barnyard Epithet and Other Obscenities: Notes on the Chicago Conspiracy Trial

Dont ShootWe Are Your Children!

Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years

PRAISE FOR Common Ground:

A marvelous saga, rich with real-life characters and novelistic in the best sense.

Newsweek

A brilliant, large-hearted book [which] works on and succeeds at so many levelsas history, as sociology, as journalism, as epic narrative above all, an act of profound imagination.

James Carroll, Boston Globe

A work of consummate genius. In its breadth, its nuance, and its quality as literature, though a piece of nonfiction, Common Ground is no less than Shakespearian.

Commonweal

A book that pulls the reader along as if it were fiction a careful, dispassionate reconstruction of events by a writer who knows how to weave history, fact, anecdote, dialogue, and description into an utterly compelling narrative.

Los Angeles Times

J. Antony Lukas deserves an ovation for his splendid inquiry, one that will make any reader want to examine his own soul.

Alden Whitman, Dallas Morning News

A magnificent achievement. No other writer currently practicing can match [Lukass] skills at weaving unwieldy complexities into a story that pulses like good, raunchy gossip.

Robert Sherrill, Chicago Sun-Times

A remarkable and compelling tale that is not only dramatic but also challenges a lot of comfortable assumptions about urban life in America. This is a work of nonfiction, but in scope, in its fine attention to detail, it is reminiscent of the best novels of James Michener.

Philadelphia Inquirer

The political book of the year.

Washington Monthly

In many respects this book belongs in the tradition of literary-documentary studiesthe kind of work James Agee did upon returning from his stint in rural Alabama in the 1930s, or Orwell did when he wrote of his experiences among Englands coal miners in the same decade. Without question J. Anthony Lukas now belongs in their companyhis book well up to their high and idiosyncratic standards.

Robert Coles, Washington Post Book World

This is the riveting stuff of genuine tragedy a true story vastly broader in scope than the nonfiction novels of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer.

George Higgins, Newsday

A model of thoroughness and balance. As a narrative of peoples repeated losses of faith, above all faith that they can shape and control their own lives, Common Ground explains what once seemed incomprehensible, and persuades the reader that to understand is indeed to forgive.

Time

The best book on an American city that has ever been published.

New England Monthly

Mr. Lukas employs the narrative skill of a novelist and the breadth of view of a social historian to tell this story. With feeling for every social and political nuance, he traces the conflict to its roots, deftly leading the reader through the shifting and volatile fortunes of Boston and its neighborhoods.

Baltimore Sun

Uncommonly rewarding. In fact, there isnt a dull page in it. Common Ground is not only about Boston in the 70s; it is about all of us today, black or white, all of us participants in the American experiment.

Milwaukee Journal

The scope and depth of Common Ground are astonishing. Whether he is exploring family histories into generations in the distant past, or analyzing legal issues and social trends, or interpreting educational issues and scholarly treatises on school problems, or laying out the nuances of Boston politics, Lukas displays knowledge and understanding that holds one in awe.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Common Ground leaves one exhilarated. This is not because of what the book says. Its pages record in excruciating detail the deterioration of American cities over the past decade. What makes the book inspiring is its author. For Lukas has demonstrated many of the attributes his subjects are lacking: tolerance, patience, and a willingness to see things from another persons point of view.

St. Petersburg Times

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, September 1986

Copyright (c) 1985 by J. Anthony Lukas
Map copyright 1985 by Jean Paul Tremblay
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1985.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Almo Publications: excerpts from the lyrics to Weve Only Just Begun, lyrics by Paul Williams, music by Roger Nichols. Copyright 1970 Irving Music, Inc. (BMI). All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
The Boston Globe: excerpt from An Open Letter to Senator Kennedy, by Mike Barnicle, Sept. 8, 1974, reprinted courtesy of the Boston Globe.
Chappell & Company, Inc.: excerpts from the lyrics to Carefully Taught by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright 1949 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright renewed, Williamson Music Co., owner of publication and allied rights throughout the Western Hemisphere and Japan. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Macmillan Publishing Company: four lines from A Full Moon in March are used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company from Collected Plays of W. B. Yeats. Copyright 1934, 1952 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. Copyrights renewed 1962 by Bertha Georgie Yeats and 1980 by Anne Yeats; rights in the world excluding the United States are administered by A. P. Watt Ltd. as agent for Michael B. Yeats and Macmillan London, Ltd. Mighty Three Music: excerpts from the lyrics to For the Love of Money by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Anthony Jackson. Copyright 1974 Mighty Three Music; excerpts from the lyrics to Ill Always Love My Mama by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Gene McFadden, and John Whitehead. Copyright 1973 Mighty Three Music. Administered by Mighty Three Music Group, 309 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Edwin H. Morris & Company: excerpts from lyrics to Hello, Dolly!, lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. Copyright 1963 Jerry Herman; excerpts from the lyrics to Before the Parade Passes By, lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. Copyright 1964 by Jerry Herman. All rights throughout the world controlled by Edwin H. Morris & Company, a division of MPL Communications, Inc. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Newsweek, Inc.: excerpts from the cover story, November 6, 1967. Copyright 1967 by Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Harold Ober Associates Incorporated: excerpts from Ballad of the Landlord