Ralph Nader Biography

Activist / Political Figure

Ralph Nader gained national fame with his 1965 book Unsafe At Any Speed, which exposed the automobile industry's irresponsibility when it came to designing safe cars. (The book focused on the Chevrolet Corvair, which ceased production shortly thereafter.) Nader became the best-known consumer advocate in the U.S., lecturing widely and forming non-profit groups like Public Citizen, whose stated goal was to protect consumers against corporate carelessness and greed. His youthful followers became known as "Nader's Raiders." He ran for president in 1996 and 2000 as a candidate for the Green Party. Critics accused Nader of taking votes away from Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 elections, as Gore narrowly lost to Republican George W. Bush. Undaunted, Nader ran again as an independent candidate in the elections of 2004 and 2008.

Extra credit: Nader graduated from Princeton in 1955, and from Harvard Law School in 1958... Nader's father immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon.

Nader joins Bill Bradley in our loop on Candidates 2000, and also appears in Candidates 2004 and Candidates 2008.

Other political activists of Nader's era include protestin' professors Linus Pauling and Noam Chomsky, and union organizer Cesar Chavez.

Blog posts mentioning Ralph Nader: