Pick up The Lines Between Us at an independent bookseller, or order online:
- Indie Bound
- Amazon
- Barnes and Noble
A masterful narrative—with echoes of Evicted and The Color of Law—that brings to life the structures, policies, and beliefs that divide us.
This eye-opening account of how a city creates its black, white, rich, and poor spaces suggests these problems are not intractable, but they are destined to persist until each of us—despite living in separate worlds—understands we have something at stake.
Praise for The Lines Between Us:
“Look to be educated and enlightened about the realities that define the shape of America’s cities…Lanahan shows how the denial of safe, decent housing adds up to the denial of hope. He builds his case so methodically that it can’t be dismissed…His thorough reporting disrobes hypocrisy and leaves decades of political excuses flailing.”
—Jacqui Banaszynski, Star Tribune
“How does a journalist render the monster of structural racism? A historical force in motion? And in Baltimore, where its consequences remain terribly alive? The Lines Between Us begins with ordinary lives crossing between homes, schools, churches, neighborhoods. Lanahan tells a story that stretches far beyond the boundaries of (t)his city, that further awakens us to our times and ourselves.”
—Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family
“The Lines Between Us brings humanity and heart to a guided tour of our fraught racial past and its enduring consequences. . . . Endearing, searing, unflinching.”
—Davarian L. Baldwin, author of Chicago’s New Negroes
“Many authors have answered the call, made sixty years ago by the eminent sociologist C. Wright Mills, to understand the social world by imagining the intersection of biography and history. But few have done so with the skill of Lanahan, an incisive journalist and a marvelous storyteller.”
—Patrick Sharkey, author of Uneasy Peace and Stuck in Place
“A brilliant account about race and class [that] captures the promise and challenges that test people and communities throughout America.”
—Antero Pietila, author of Not in My Neighborhood and The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins
“Lanahan has written a meticulous and affecting study, a precious resource for readers interested in urban politics, race, and city life.”
—Booklist