Hillbilly Elegy

had multiple ACEs. This is really
striking—four in every ten working-
class people had faced multiple
instances of childhood trauma. For the
non–working class, that number was 29
percent.
I gave a quiz to Aunt Wee, Uncle
Dan, Lindsay, and Usha that
psychologists use to measure the number
of ACEs a person has faced. Aunt Wee
scored a seven—higher even than
Lindsay and me, who each scored a six.
Dan and Usha—the two people whose
families seemed nice to the point of
oddity—each scored a zero. The weird
people were the ones who hadn’t faced
any childhood trauma.