Ralph Nader is one of America's most effective social critics. His analyses and advocacy have enhanced public awareness and increased government and corporate accountability. His example has inspired a whole generation of consumer advocates, citizen activists, and public interest lawyers.
He first made headlines as a young lawyer in 1965 with his book Unsafe at Any Speed, which led to congressional hearings and the passage of a series of life-saving automobile safety laws in 1966.
Nader founded or inspired a wide variety of citizen action organizations including Public Citizen, the Congress Project, the Center for Auto Safety, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Clean Water Action Project, the Pension Rights Center, the Princeton Alumni Corps, and the Appleseed Foundation— a nonprofit network of 17 public interest justice centers. In addition, Nader conceived and helped establish the state-based PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups).
Nader played a pivotal role in advancing and improving the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the landmark Freedom of Information Act. He worked tirelessly to launch federal regulatory agencies such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
An author, lecturer, attorney, and political activist, Nader worked for safer cars, healthier food, safer drugs, cleaner air and drinking water, and safer work environments. In 2006 he was named by The Atlantic as one of the one hundred most influential figures in American history. TIME Magazine has called him the "U.S.'s toughest customer" and in 1974, a survey conducted by U.S. News and World Report rated him as the fourth most influential person in the United States.
Nader works relentlessly to advance meaningful civic institutions and citizen supremacy over big business control of our governments, including our Congress