Nader, Ralph

(1934– ) lawyer, consumer advocate; born in Winsted, Conn. He graduated from Princeton (1955) and Harvard Law School (1958), then established a practice in Hartford. Convinced that automobile injuries were often due to unsafe vehicle design, he wrote Unsafe at Any Speed (1965, rev. 1972), which aroused public interest and led to passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He was chiefly responsible for passage of the 1967 Wholesome Meat Act, imposing federal standards on slaughterhouses. His professional associates, known (sometimes derisively) as "Nader's Raiders" published reports on many subjects, including baby food, insecticides, mercury poisoning, radiation dangers, pension reform, and coal-mine safety. He founded the Center for Responsive Law, Public Citizen Inc., and other groups. Idealistic and modest, he became known for spartan personal habits and long workdays. His many books include The Menace of Atomic Energy (1977) and Who's Poisoning America? (1981).

References in periodicals archive

That you would promote such a pathetic record while deliberately ignoring Ralph Nader, unquestionably the environmental champion in the field, is shameful and destructive.

Third-party thoughts

In 2008 Ralph Nader ran an independent 45 state Presidential campaign and earned 695,817 votes (and counting) on 45 state ballots and the District of Columbia.

Where is Ralph Nader Country in 2008?

BEIRUT: US Presidential candidate Ralph Nader said in comments published Tuesday both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, "will usher harmful and dangerous policies on Lebanon similar to those made under current US President George W.

Both Obama, McCain will harm Lebanon - Nader

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader will speak at a rally at 3 p.m.

Nader to make Eugene stop

The Democrats do not seem happy that Ralph Nader has joined the race, says Kate Phillips at The New York Times' The Caucus.

TRAIL MIX: Can Obama Withstand Negative Campaigning?

flit were not for the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in 2000, A1 Gore would have been president.

Greens as spoilers

Ralph Nader possesses neither the bombast nor the malevolence of a Jessep, but he, too, could issue the same proclamation.

Nader more than just `Unreasonable'

This time the spotlight is on Ralph Nader, that most divisive of spoilers who's often blamed for throwing the presidential election to George W.

An Unreasonable Man

Another awkward fact was that Cogswell had vocally supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential campaign, and had been as disdainful of mainstream Democrats as Nader himself was.

The coffee house candidate: the engrossing tale of a Seattle cab driver's ill-fated run for local office

"Rodgers assailed the CSR-imbued philosophy that guides Whole Foods, calling it similar to those of Karl Marx and Ralph Nader. Mackey, an avowed libertarian, replied that his approach has brought a lot more wealth for Whole Foods' investors than the one embraced at Cypress, which, he noted, has struggled to be profitable.

Corporate social responsibility revisited

That rationale hardly differs from the neo-Marxist rantings of Ralph Nader's Public Citizen and other so-called consumer activist groups demanding that the government tax oil companies' supposed windfall profits and that they set the price of fuel to prevent "gouging."

Price controls: making a bad situation worse