On This Ground

“Among Anthony DePalma’s many gifts and talents is his ability to escort readers beyond the gates of places that would otherwise be off-limits, so they might bear particular witness to the resilience of the human spirit. In On This Ground, he invites us into St. Benedict’s Prep, where ‘an inimitable gang of downtown monks’ draws on centuries-old sacred texts–as well as lessons harvested from as far afield as the U.S. military, the experimental education movement, and Outward Bound–to give teenagers from one of our nation’s most scarred cities the tools, tough love, and tenacity to triumph.”

- Jacques Steinberg, former New York Times education correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers

“In a moment when urban high schools are faltering and Catholic ones are closing by the dozens, Anthony DePalma has a different story to tell–a lively, complex, surprising, provocative story. What sets St. Benedict’s Prep apart? It’s not the black hoodies, the jug, the Velvet Rope, the vulnerability chair, the dread-inducing rites of initiation, or the Rule of St. Benedict. Read this book and find out.”

- Paul Elie, author of The Last Supper

“The resurrection of St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark was a courageous rebuttal to the white flight and financial disinvestment that followed the city’s 1967 racial uprisings. In Anthony DePalma’s hands it becomes a gripping and revelatory narrative about what it takes to educate generations of children who were left behind, making their way against enormous odds. The heroes are educators, students and an inimitable headmaster who for 50 years has rejected a rising clamor for high test scores in favor of ‘a school that tends to the heart as well as the mind.’”

- Dale Russakoff, bestselling author of The Prize

“On This Ground isn’t another story of resilience and achievement despite the odds in a tough American city. What DePalma gives us is a lesson in community and how–when done correctly with intention and love–it has the power to affirm, heal, and transform lives.”

- Bryan Mealer, bestselling author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (with William Kamkwamba)

“A love letter to an inner-city Catholic high school, full of praise for faith and rigor.”

- Kirkus Reviews

”[On This Ground] will leave readers with a sense of what is possible–and what is not–when it comes to lifting students out of difficult circumstances.”

–Wall Street Journal book review

Anthony DePalma is the author of The Cubans, The Man Who Invented Fidel, Here: A Biography of the New American Continent, and City of Dust. He was an education reporter and foreign correspondent for The New York Times for twenty-two years and continues to write for the newspaper as well as other publications. He lives in New Jersey.