November 27, 2019
By Boyce Batey
From the article “Following Ralph Nader,” Courtesy Thistle Magazine
Ralph Nader
In 1953 when I was 23 years old, sitting at the table in the basement level of the Princeton University library working on my senior thesis that eventually was titled, “Children, the Psychopathological Environment and Moral Consciousness in the Literary Achievement of Henry James” I met Ralph Nader there with whom, for several months, I shared the table at which we both came to do our academic work.
At this table, Ralph impressed me when he told me that occasionally people from Washington D.C. came to Princeton to interview him because he apparently knew more about a certain small island in the South Pacific Ocean than anyone else, they could locate. This is the only thing I remember about my contact with Ralph Nader.
However, over the years since then, through the “Princeton Alumni Weekly” and other media sources, I’ve kept track of what Ralph has been doing since graduating from Princeton with a Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1955 and from Harvard Law School with an LLB in 1958.
After Harvard, Ralph joined the United States Army where he served as a cook. In 1959, he was admitted to the bar, and began practicing law in Hartford, Connecticut, while also lecturing at the University of Hartford. In addition to being a lawyer and lecturer, he was also an American activist in the field of consumerism where his work resulted in passage of government reforms and landmark American consumerism laws. In 1965, he published his book, “Unsafe at any Speed,” which critiqued the safety record of American automobile manufacturers and brought him to the attention of the American public.
In addition, he is the author or co-author of over 23 books. Various lists named him among the “100 most-influential Americans.” He ran for President of the United States several times and his 2000 run for president as an independent and 3rd party candidate was viewed as helping George W. Bush win the election over Al Gore. Finally, Ralph Nader is the subject of a documentary on his life and work, “An Unreasonable Man.” He is now 85 years old, living in Winsted, Connecticut.
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