Quiet Street

On American Privilege

By: Nick McDonell

Narrated by: Nick McDonell

Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

A bold and deeply personal exploration of wealth, power, and the American elite, exposing how the ruling class—intentionally or not—perpetuates cycles of injustice

"[A] story about American inequity, and how it mindlessly, immorally, reproduces itself. Unlike most such stories, however, this one left me believing in the possibility...of drastic change."—Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom

Nick McDonell grew up on New York City’s Upper East Side, a neighborhood defined by its wealth and influence. As a child, McDonell enjoyed everything that rarefied world entailed—sailing lessons in the Hamptons, school galas at the Met, and holiday trips on private jets. But as an adult, he left it behind to become a foreign correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Quiet Street, McDonell returns to the sidewalks of his youth, exhuming with bracing honesty his upbringing and those of his affluent peers. From Galápagos Island cruises and Tanzanian safaris to steely handshakes and schoolyard microaggressions to fox-hunting rituals and the courtship rites of sexually precocious tweens, McDonell examines the rearing of the ruling class in scalpel-sharp detail, documenting how wealth and power are hoarded, encoded, and passed down from one generation to the next. What’s more, he demonstrates how outsiders—the poor, the nonwhite, the suburban—are kept out.

Searing and precise yet ultimately full of compassion, Quiet Street examines the problem of America’s one percent, whose vision of a more just world never materializes. Who are these people? How do they cling to power? What would it take for them to share it? Quiet Street looks for answers in a universal experience: coming to terms with the culture that made you.

©2023 Nick McDonell (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Quiet Street is an exquisitely rendered horror story about American inequity, and how it mindlessly, immorally, reproduces itself. Unlike most such stories, however, this one left me believing in the possibility (and necessity) of drastic change. Nick McDonell writes with a scalpel in one hand, and in the other, a bushel of grace." —Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom

“Friendships with Upper East Side elites, attendance at prestigious schools like Buckley, Harvard, and Oxford, and travel to exotic locations . . . as McDonell illuminates a rarified world of money, power, and connections, he also offers candidly sobering insight into the systemic cultural mechanisms designed to protect long-standing social inequalities. An eloquent and compelling study.” —Kirkus Reviews

"An elegant confessional of the excesses of the ruling classes — told in a kind of travelogue through sybaritic circles of hell....the lessons are as familiar as Croesus and Gatsby." —Washington Post

Honest privileged story

I thank the author for a glimpse, at 1% who are rich and privileged. His honesty was truly refreshing. I appreciate the story.

Authentic reflections by the 0.1%

0.1% will not divest their own power and privilege for the empowerment of all unless it is forced upon them. This book offers one of many reasons for the rest of humanity to rise up and take that power. Time is ripe for all humanity towards equitable distribution of wealth and resources, here and now.

Great short story

This was such a great listen. Well written and great story. This book allowed me to better understand myself and others in their struggles as well .