Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is one of America's most renowned and effective campaigner for the rights of consumers and general public, a role that has repeatedly brought him into conflict with both businesses and the government.

Ralph Nader was born on February 27, 1934, in Winsted, Connecticut to Nathra and Rose Nader, Lebanese and Egyptian immigrants. In his adolescence, Nader was instilled with wanting to become a "people's lawyer" from his family who are often compared to the Kennedy's, but instead of revolving around power, the Naders lived with a powerful sense of justice. After he graduated from Gilbert School, Nader entered the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University where he graduated magna cum laude in 1955 with a major in government and economics, and later graduated from Harvard Law School in 1958. He served in the United States Army for six months in 1959, then began work as a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut. Between 1961 and 1963, he was a Professor of History and Government at the University of Hartford. By now the young attorney was becoming distressed by the lack of concern of American corporations to the global consequences of their actions, and he began to speak out against the abuse of corporate power.

In 1959, Nader wrote the article "The Safe Car You Can't Buy," but he first made headlines in 1965 with his book Unsafe at Any Speed, which took to the auto industry, mostly Chevrolet Corvair and General Motors, for producing unsafe vehicles. This aroused public interest and led to the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966. In an attempt to discredit Nader, General Motors hired private investigators to expose any embarrassing details of his personal life, particularly his sex life, but GM failed to discredit Nader. In 1970, an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit was filed against General Motors and this ended in GM paying an out-of-court settlement of $425,000 and publicly