Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families is a book by J. Anthony Lukas examining race relations in Boston, Massachusetts through the prism of desegregation busing. It received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book traces the history of three families: the African-American Twymons, the Irish McGoffs and the Yankee Divers. It gives b...
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Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families is a book by J. Anthony Lukas examining race relations in Boston, Massachusetts through the prism of desegregation busing. It received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book traces the history of three families: the African-American Twymons, the Irish McGoffs and the Yankee Divers. It gives brief genealogical histories of each families, focusing on how the events they went through illuminated Boston history, before narrowing its focus to the racial tension of the 1960s and the 70s.
Each family is directly involved in the busing crisis. The McGoffs are proud residents of Charlestown who see an attempt to change the dynamics of their school as an assault on their culture. The Twymons have long endured sub-standard education and are hoping that busing will finally change this. Colin Diver is a Harvard Law School graduate and...
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