New Book: Told You So: The Big Book of Weekly Columns, by Ralph Nader ’55, introduction by Jim Hightower (Seven Stories Press)
The author: An activist, lawyer, and author, Nader has founded a number of public interest groups, including Public Citizen, the Center for Auto Safety, the Pension Rights Center, and the Center for Study of Responsive Law. Time and Life magazines honored him as one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century.
The book: In this collection of more than 300 columns that Nader has written — some going back to the 1970s — he discusses problems facing society, including the consequences of corporate abuses and power, the effects of “rampant commercialism and its subjugation of civic values,” threats to civil rights and liberties and to public health “stemming from a failed healthcare system,” and the erosion of workers rights. He also looks at citizens who took action to achieve social change.
Opening lines: “Combatting corporate abuses requires constant vigilance. Corporations shape America’s political process as much as they shape America’s economy through PAC contributions and threats to move manufacturing and service jobs to low-wage countries.”