Common Ground

Summary

An immersive narrative tracing three Boston families—Black, Irish-American, and white-collar Yankee—through the city's wrenching school-busing crisis of the 1970s. Lukas uses their intertwined stories to expose the class, racial, and institutional fractures beneath a Northern city's liberal self-image. The book stands as a landmark of long-form journalism, blending intimate biography with sweeping civic history.