Finally you can understand the lacking level of road safety in US versus European countries that have in service safety policies that will reduce the absolute number of killed by 30% over 5 years.

This book is the necessary building stone to the effort to make car manufacturers accountable for the safety level of his products.

I can't understand why some publisher is not doing a new edition of it.

It took real guts and courage to expose the unethical tactics used by too many lawyers today, and I'm grateful that they did so. Highly recommended.

I was hoping for some more info on Nader's private life, but apparently he never really had one. When you work 18-20 hours a day, 7 days a week there isn't much time for leisure. I enjoyed reading about his ascent to power and (being 22) I never realized how much power he had when he was in his prime. This book is quite balanced: it covers his successes as well his wacky failures. Example: Fight to Advance the Nation's Sports, a silly campaign against bad food and high ticket prices at sports games. We learn about Nader's extreme myopia, fighting hard to get something done and mercilessly lambasting anyone who gets in his way, even former allies. Apparently Nader developed a bad habit of alienating people when he needed them the most.

In the end, despite learning of Nader's many blunders, I came away respecting the guy more than I did before. He is certainly one of the most important people of the twentieth century. Never have I come across a figure in history who so throroughly rejects the pleasures of life in favor of a constant devotion to the cause. Nader is, apparently, something of a secular saint. If you want to get the inside scoop on the battles Nader fought, I recommend this book.

Nader has been tireless in his efforts to bring about change
in America . . . while sometimes spreading himself too thin,
he nevertheless has accomplished a great deal in his lifetime.

Though he tries to deny it, Nader had a profound impact on the
last presidential election . . . this book helped give me
a better understanding as to his thinking on why he ran.

I also came away with the impression that he rarely sleeps . . . and I got a chuckle out of the description of one appearance with Jay Leno . . . when asked about what he did for fun, he said "no" to dating and movies . . . but when pressed, he did finally admit that he ate strawberries!

There were many memorable passages; among them:
* Alan Morrison--a longtime friend and colleague of Nader's--has the following observation: "I have never known anybody who has more ideas about more things than Ralph. He's not interested in two or three or five or ten things. He's interested in a million. He sees things differently
from everybody else. He just sees injustices, unfairness, and improper ways of handling situations that everyone else just accepts. He has a cosmic view of these things, very broad, but at the same time, he is a person who pays enormous attention to details. I never met anybody who can think so big and think so small at the same time."

* As a boss, Nader remained an original. He once claimed that his number-one criterion for hiring people was that they be thick-skinned. "People often ask me how I choose the people to work with me," he explained. "Well, you start off by saying they have to be bright, hard-working, the usual traits. But the one key probably is how willing they are not to be loved."

* Nader asked [Bobby] Fischer his secret. Fischer explained that there was calculation in many of his decisions, whether showing up late to matches, canceling interviews, even refusing an invitation to visit the White House. It made him seem like a
temperamental genius, even more than he actually was, and the
public ate it up. "If you want to get attention to the game, you have to manipulate the press," Fischer explained.

For Nader, this was confirmation of his own instincts. His aim was to draw attention to the cause of consumerism. During this era, he was a marionette master when it came to the press. At every opportunity, Nader cast himself as an indefatigable advocate, grave, selfless, working away while the innocent citizenry sleeps. This had the advantage of not being too far from the truth. But it was not the whole truth.

I was among those who thought Ralph Nader was a "spoiler" and deprived Al Gore of the election. After reading this book, I now realize that Nader is correct-the major premise of his book is that both the Democratic and Republican parties have become so corrupt and so removed from citizen interests as to be identically disqualified from putting forward viable candidates for the future. He puts forth a vision for a new democracy in which the citizens take back the power and demand that third party candidates be allowed to join the Presidential debates and be heard by America.

Some will accuse Nader of name-dropping and self-aggrandizing in this book, but that is an unfair charge. He has dedicated 40 years of his life to a quest for fairness in American life. As I went through the book and reflected on his very early efforts on everything from women's rights to product safety to the environment I could not help thinking that the breadth and substance of his accomplishments make the Democratic and Republican candidates look like Johnny-come-latelys who are also bluffing snake oil salesmen. This guy is "the real deal."

I recommend that two books be read prior to reading this one: Halstead & Lind's "The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics" and Ray & Anderson's "The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World". Two other books could add useful underpinnings to the points Nader makes that I summarize below: Lewis' "LOSERS: The Road to Everyplace but the White House" which immortalizes citizen-businessman Morry Taylor (the "Grizz"); and Williamson's "IMAGINE: What America Could be in the 21st Century."

A few points about Nader's book that I hope will dispel all the negative reviews and demonstrate that this is required reading:

1) This is the only book that addresses the totality of the challenges and threats to America in a sensible balanced way, without platitudes and upon a foundation of fact.

2) This is the only book representing the new political paradigm in which the citizen-voters take back the power by wiping out the ability of corporations to buy politicians.

3) This is the only book that thoughtfully and convincingly demonstrates that the Democrats have morphed into shadow Republicans, and both parties have completely lost their ethical and popular foundation.

4) This is the only book that bluntly confronts the fact that we get the government we deserve--democracy is hard work and demands citizen time and thought.

5) Among the useful details that should outrage and mobilize citizens, and all according to Nader:

a) the Commission on Presidential Debates is a fraud perpetrated upon the public--it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic and Republic parties created explicitly to displace the more honest League of Women Voters and to bar third party candidates from being visible to America in the crucial Presidential debates.

b) there is an incestuous relationship between the media, the polls (most funded by the media) and the Presidential debate and public policy process.

c) global threats are not well-understood by Americans, and a major effort spanning the next generation must be undertaken to restore global or foreign affairs and foreign trade understanding to the public.

d) public budgets are neither public nor honest. They are massively distorted with a "proliferating array of taxpayer subsidies, giveaways, and bailouts (known as corporate welfare) to corporations." A recurring theme in Nader's book, based on factual legally-viable documentation, is the manner in which corporations are looting the commonwealth with the active connivance of our elected officials. The people need to wise up.

e) the Internet has *not* has the anticipated leveling effect of bringing out citizen-voters to take back the power and stop corporate socialism.

f) the non-profit organizations and popular organizations (e.g. the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO) consistently misrepresent their members by choosing the "lesser of two evils" in the two traditionalist corporate candidates, not realizing that a) a lesser evil is still evil and b) their members are smart enough to consider third party alternatives and could--if enough such organizations banded together, cause a third party to be instantly visible as a mainstream alternative.

g) the public commonwealth (the airwaves, land, water, etc.) has been taken away from the people. It is time to get it back and demand, as one small example, that those using the airwaves granted by the public provide for free political time for all viable candidates, ending the advertising rip-off that also deprives the people of clear access to all competing views.

h) community building from the neighborhood up is the place to start. We need to focus on empowering and exciting the young people and building a cadre of volunteer civic activists that will sustain progressive public interests for the decades to come.

I would make one personal observation that was inspired by reading this book: I do not believe that any one President, from any party, is viable as a "one click" choice for leading America. In my view, the next President should not be elected without two fundamental changes in how we elect Presidents: 1) instant run-off voting must be enacted, allowing second choice votes to play a role if a third party candidate is not elected (while qualifying the third party for funding in future elections based on the first choice vote); and 2) Cabinets must be announced in advance of the election and be the focus of at least one Presidential debate including at least three but ideally four parties. It is time for a third party candidate to pull together a Cabinet that includes the best choice for key posts irrespective of parties, and specifically including the Pat Buchanan's, Sam Nunns, Colin Powells, and key others like Ross Perot, Morry Taylor, even Jello Biafra (as new Minister of Culture!).

This is really a superb book, in the tradition the Committees of Correspondence that helped bring about the American revolution, and I recommend it to all.