Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon

When a Princeton undergraduate driving a 1949 Studebaker nearly ran over Albert Einstein, he wondered, “What if the brakes had failed?” That undergraduate was Ralph Nader, and his question eventually lead to his book Unsafe at Any Speed, a searing indictment of automobile safety.

Nader’s crusade against the automobile industry resulted in higher safety standards and the saving of millions of dollars and millions of lives, earning him public accolades. Years later, though, his third-party candidacy in the 2000 elections very likely cost Al Gore the presidency, causing many to bemoan his public involvement.

Nader still drives that 1949 Studebaker, but what drives this complex and elusive reformer who has perplexed, and even infuriated, nearly everyone with whom he has ever worked? In Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon (Perseus Publishing, 2002), Justin Martin ’87 gives a balanced portrait based on extensive research and interviews with hundreds of associates, friends and family, and Nader himself.

Nader was born in 1934, and his interest in auto safety began at an early age—his father was employed by Maxwell Auto Works, later Chrysler. Nader graduated from Princeton in 1955, and following law school at Harvard, he worked as a freelance journalist before moving to Washington, D.C., in 1964. He paid $85 for a spare little room in a boarding house and was highly secretive, giving his phone number and address to few people. The following year, he published Unsafe at Any Speed, establishing his reputation as a reformer. That reputation was further cemented when he subsequently won a lawsuit against General Motors, which had hired spies to dig up dirt on him.

Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, he hired groups of young people, dubbed “Nader’s Raiders,” to investigate corporate malfeasance and government corruption. His attitude toward his youthful army provides an insight into Nader’s own personality. When asked how he chose his workers, Nader once responded: “You start off by saying they have to be bright and hardworking, the usual traits. But the one key probably is how willing they are not to be loved.”

Nader has flirted with politics since 1972, when he declined both a third-party candidacy and an offer to be running mate to George McGovern. His thinking clearly changed by 1992. Since then, he has run for the presidency three times, twice as the Green Party candidate even though he is not a member of the Green Party—or any other party, for that matter.

But even Nader’s critics have to admit that he has left a substantial legacy—safer cars and successful battles on a vast array of issues, such as nuclear power, drug labeling, access to government information, antitrust policy, global trade, utility rate increases, nursing home conditions, fair credit practices, and more. That seems like a lot of territory, but Martin says, “He has never gotten married, has never had kids, has few real friends. This lack of attachment has left him free to be incredibly focused on his life’s work. And his energy tilts into Thomas Jefferson territory: He works seven days a week, sleeps four hours a night.”

Martin says that the toughest challenge in writing the book was the sheer amount of material he had to deal with. “Ralph Nader has been working nonstop for going on 40 years now,” Martin says. “He has accomplished a huge amount, rubbed shoulders with thousands of people. It was tough to boil it all down.” Will Nader be pleased with the results? “He can be very thin-skinned,” Martin says. “And he is very assiduous about the crafting and maintenance of his public image. I think he will probably be displeased by some of the negative impressions contained in the book. But I’ve tried to create a fair and balanced portrait of an extremely complex man. Nader has always put a premium on veracity. While he may not like certain portions of the book, I think he will respect the accuracy and thoroughness of my research and reporting.”

What does Martin think is next for Nader? “I would lay 90 percent odds that he will run for president in 2004. I would also lay 0 percent odds that he will win. Even so, he may well continue to run, again and again.”

Martin is the author of the national bestseller Greenspan: The Man Behind Money, and his work has appeared in such magazines as Newsweek, Fortune, Travel & Leisure, and Worth.

—Christopher Dow