Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
a theological essay by Sheila T. Harty
The most frequent metaphor used for Ralph Nader is “David and Goliath”
—a smaller righteous force against overwhelming conventional might.
Indeed, in 1973, I felt appropriately employed as a theologian with Nader,
because truly citizen and consumer initiatives are “applied ethics.”
I didn’t know all this in 1975 when I first took a job with a Nader group in Washington DC.
I’d heard of Ralph Nader, but I associated his name with cars, which never interested me.
But I took a job as a typist to produce a book on corporate crime.
Little did I know this would change my life.
T
yping for Nader politicized me: the words, the arguments, the facts passing from my fingers to
my brain. The book, Taming the Giant Corporation, 1 expanded the consciousness of this
classically trained theologian to practical marketplace issues with all their economic, legal,
political, and scientific implications. This exposure to reality was riveting. My righteousness
took on a whole new quality of intransigence. As a Nader Raider, I was an avenging angel against modern
sins, like environmental pollution, occupational disease and injury, deceptive advertising, and corporate
accountability. In fact, I’ve never since been so content with employment. I often wondered why I felt so
at home. I did an informal survey of the 200 Nader Raiders at the time and found that 95 percent were
Jews or Catholics with a sprinkling of Quakers. Now that’s interesting!
The predominance of “Jews and Catholics working for an
Arab,” as one commentator quipped, has a theological
explanation, which holds at least in the generality. The Protestant
Reformation as led by Martin Luther in the mid-1500s was for
salvation by “faith alone,” as opposed to “works,” which was
emphasized by Catholics. Certainly, greedy medieval clergy
exploited this by selling indulgences, which bought time off in
purgatory for sins in exchange for prescribed pious actions.
Although the “selling” part was wrong, the underlying premise of
the Catholic view was the necessity to “act” in accordance with
one’s faith. Because actions extend the self outwardly, this
Catholic view built a tradition of social service and often a
martyr-like commitment to the public good.
In contrast, the Protestant view of “faith alone” nourished an
independent and confident self, which was expressed best in
individual entrepreneurship. Max Weber‘s book, The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 2 explained the material success from hard work as an outward sign of
inner faith and the just desserts from the stewardship of natural resources. Thus, the predominant
Protestant complexion of the Republican Party and schools of private enterprise is explained.
In a different vein, but still more closely aligned with Catholicism’s conscience for social justice, the
Jewish religion does not agonize over definitions of God or other dogma of faith. The Jewish faith is a
covenant of salvation between God and his chosen people, the emphasis again being on the community,
the fellowship of man, and the public welfare. Thus, the Jewish and Catholic Nader Raiders were out
investigating and denouncing the excesses of Protestant individualism, which was reaping private profits
at the expense of the public interest.
1
Ralph Nader, Mark Green, and Joel Seligman, Taming the Giant Corporation: The Case for Federal Chartering (New York
NY: W.W. Norton, 1976).
2
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958).
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
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If that reductionist dialectic doesn’t hold sway, we can explain Ralph Nader (who is not a religious
person) and the Nader Raiders (who were working in the office on Sunday mornings) by quoting the
atheist existentialist John Paul Sarte:
You act and, by your actions, you make yourself, and what you make
yourself, you are, and nothing else.
Commenting on Nader, a friend of his said that he “would have fitted right into the Middle Ages.” He
has been described 3 as looking “faintly foreign…as if he were not just in the wrong country, but in the
wrong time.” Others said he “looked a little like Franz Kafka.” He was “darker than the American ideal”
and with “a nose like a prophet.” He was intense, zealous, and a loner. As I spent 10 years seeing him
almost every day, let me explain this unlikely American hero.
THE STORY OF RALPH NADER 4
N
ader was born in 1934, the youngest of four children of Lebanese parents. The family spoke
Arabic in the home. The family business was a restaurant considered “no place to go and eat in
peace.” 5 It was squeaky clean with wholesome food and conversational challenges to customers.
Ralph Nader was brought up hearing, voicing, and defending strong opinions—not strictly political, but
views of conscience. The Old Testament prophet was his father.
Nathra Nader came to America from Lebanon as a poor 19 year old. By the time he went back to
Lebanon at age 31, he had a bank account and some property. He married a 19-year-old Lebanese girl and
returned to the United States, choosing the Berkshire foothills of Connecticut in which to raise a family.
Perhaps because he was an avid newspaper reader and a student of American history, Nader’s father
stayed “perpetually angry” about social injustice; Nader’s mother stayed perpetually hopeful about
“human possibilities.” 6 Together, they brought their children up to believe that a citizen owed a debt to
society that must be freely paid.
A grade school friend of Nader’s remembered him at as being “disputatious” at 9 years old. “He’d
make you define your terms!” 7 A principal at Nader’s high school remembered giving him a stack of
Congressional Records, because no one ever read them. The 14-year-old Nader took them home and read
all of these printed speeches by Members of Congress. 8
Nader chose Princeton University for college because of its rustic setting and its strong department of
Oriental languages. He studied Russian and Chinese and majored in Far East politics. He was always in
the library, studying until it closed, so they finally gave him his own key.
Nader remembered one night in his junior year walking back from the library under the huge elm
trees that were always full of song birds. That night, the ground was littered with dead song birds. They
had been killed by DDT sprayed on the trees. The next day he wrote a letter of protest to the Daily
Princetonian, which was not printed. When he went to the newspaper office to protest further, the editors
could not take dead birds seriously.
Nader argued:
They replied:
3
If that’s what it does to the birds, what do you think it’s doing to us? 9
If it were harmful to us, they wouldn’t be spraying it.
Hays Gorey, Nader and the Power of Everyman (New York NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1975), pp. 4-5.
Thomas Whiteside, The Investigation of Ralph Nader: General Motors versus One Determined Man (New York NY: Arbor
House, 1972); Gorey, Nader and the Power of Everyman; Charles McCarry, Citizen Nader (New York NY: Saturday Review
Press, 1972); and Ralph Nader, Beware (New York NY: Law-Arts, Inc., 1971).
5
McCarry, pg. 32.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid., pg. 35.
8
Ibid., pg. 40.
9
Ibid., pg. 45.
4
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
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Nader’s response: That’s a perfect example of the insults society will tolerate if they’re conditioned
to trust the system.
During his student years, Nader did a lot of hitchhiking around the country and, consequently,
witnessed many highway accidents. He remembered one in particular in which a child was decapitated
from sitting in the front seat of a car during a collision at only 15 miles per hour. The glove compartment
door came open on impact and severed the child at the neck. The cause of the injury—not the accident—
was clearly a design problem: where the glove compartment was placed and how lethally thin door and
how insecure the latch.
When studying liability later at Harvard Law School, Nader remembered that accident scene. He
posed an alternative answer to the standard determination of which driver was at fault. Nader accused the
car. With this novel critique, Nader started researching the American automobile and wrote a long legal
paper on product liability in auto design.
But law school disillusioned Nader. He was disdainful of the studious but elite who were only
pursuing profitable careers. Pro bono law was not a motivation in the 1950s. Nader wanted to be a lawyer
for the public interest but found few colleagues who would represent the human race on a nonprofit basis.
His law school roommate remembered that Nader’s goal was to gain a law degree without being
brainwashed. He graduated in 1960. After six months in the Army Reserve, he had four years of
uneventful private practice in Hartford, Connecticut.
Nader’s law school paper on auto design came to the attention of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then
Assistant Secretary of Labor and later New York Senator. Moynihan had a long interest in auto design
and highway safety. 10 Moynihan contracted Nader to write position papers for proposed auto safety
legislation. Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-CT) intended to hold pubic hearings on what the government
should do about auto safety. 11 General Motors’ chief executives were scheduled to testify. 12 Nader was
invited as an unpaid advisor to Ribicoff’s Senate Subcommittee in preparation for the public hearings. All
Nader had when he began was brains and conscience.
GENERAL MOTORS AND THE CORVAIR
N
ader was determined to explode the myth that traffic deaths and injuries were caused, as industry
apologists always accused, by careless drivers. His research addressed the lack of corporate
accountability for design defects that contributed to annual deaths in traffic accidents. Nader
argued that the automobile industry concentrates on style, which is more easily marketed for profit. If the
industry were designing for safety, cars would have padded dashboards, collapsible steering columns, seat
belts, air bags, and shock absorbent bumpers.
Nader further argued that safer automobile design was within the technical capacity of the industry. In
his research for the Senate hearings, Nader focused on the rear-engine Corvair, which had a tendency to
roll over when cornering. 13 One of GM’s head engineers had warned management about this design
defect, but management ignored the needed change. Nader wrote that GM engineers:
...did not have the professional stamina to defend their engineering principles
before the predatory clutches of the cost cutters and the stylists. 14
Nader’s thesis was that GM executives had marketed a car known to be unsafe for the overriding
purpose of making money—an accusation of negligent homicide. The gauntlet was down. But without
10
Daniel P. Moynihan and William Haddon, Jr., The Reporter magazine, 1959.
Senate Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization, which had oversight on how the government functioned.
12
Frederic G. Donner, Chairman of the Board of General Motors, and James M. Roche, President of General Motors.
13
A 1971 study sponsored by the Insurance Institute of Highway at University of North Carolina’s Highway Safety Research
Center confirmed Nader’s critique of the Corvair design and its complicity in highway accidents. McCarry, pp. 9-10.
14
Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed: the Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile (New York NY: Bantam Book, 1973).
11
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
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federal legislation, the auto industry could not be held accountable for any of the 50,000 deaths and a
million injuries per year on U.S. highways for an estimated $8 billion in resulting costs. 15
In 1965, Nader published his findings in a book, Unsafe At Any Speed, 16 which he dedicated to a good
friend 17 disabled in a car accident. As the book gained notice, GM hired a private investigator 18 who
began surveillance of Nader. Nader got intimidating late-night phone calls. Wherever he went, someone
was following him—even after midnight. They watched his one-room boarding house. Women
propositioned him in stores. His friends, relatives, and neighbors were interviewed for spurious preemployment checks, which included questions about drugs, sex, religion, racial prejudice, and political
activities.
In 1966, the public hearings on auto safety were finally held and Nader testified before the Senate
Subcommittee. Senator Robert Kennedy, a member of the Senate Subcommittee, asked Nader during the
hearings why he was researching the safety defects of American automobiles so vigorously. Nader answered:
Basically, the motivation is simply this. When I see, as I have seen, people
decapitated, crushed, bloodied, and broken...on highways...I ask myself, what can
the genius of man do to avoid this? And frankly, I think this country and the auto
industry are abundantly endowed with the genius of man to provide an engineering
environment of both highways and vehicles that will protect the occupants from the
consequences of their errors... 19
AUTHENTICATING VIRTUE
A
fter the Senate hearings, Nader told a friend at the Washington Post 20 that he was being followed.
A Capitol Hill policeman in the Senate Office Building also reported seeing two men tailing
Nader. One friend became suspicious during a bogus interview and had the presence of mind to
write up an account of the interview immediately after. Another friend of Nader’s did further digging and
exposed details in an article for The New Republic, 21 which triggered other investigative pieces. When one
appeared in The New York Times, GM was forced to issue a press release. 22 However, GM only admitted
to a routine investigation upon the publication of Nader’s book.
In response, Senator Ribicoff announced on the Senate floor that his Subcommittee would hold
additional hearings 23 on the GM investigation of Nader and that he expected “a public explanation of the
alleged harassment of a Senate Committee witness.” 24 Invited as witnesses were representatives of the
detective agencies hired to investigate Nader and James Roche, President of General Motors.
Eventually, GM had to disclose to the press and the Senate Subcommittee that its investigation of
Ralph Nader was indeed intended to discredit him as a witness. As Senator Gaylord Nelson said:
This raises grave and serious questions of national significance. What are we
coming to when a great and powerful corporation will engage in such unethical and
scandalous activity in an effort to discredit a citizen who is a witness before a
Congressional committee. If great corporations can engage in this kind of
intimidation, it is an assault upon freedom in America.
15
Property damage, medical expenses, lost wages, and insurance overhead.
The title, which was the publisher’s choice, came from another book about car safety, John Keats, Insolent Chariots.
17
Frederick Hughes Condon.
18
Vincent Gillen, President of Vincent Gillen Associates, Inc.
19
Hearings on Highway Safety, Senate Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization, Committee on Government Operations,
Washington, D.C., Thursday, February 10, 1965.
20
Morton Mintz, “Car Safety Critic Nader Reports Being ‘Tailed’,” The Washington Post, February 13, 1965.
21
James Ridgeway, “The Dick,” The New Republic, March 12, 1966.
22
March 9, 1966.
23
March 22, 1966.
24
Whiteside.
16
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
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As a result of the hearings, the Department of Justice and the FBI announced an investigation into
Nader’s allegations. Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Traffic and Motor
Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. By then, another 1.5 million people had died in U.S. auto accidents.
THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN HERO
N
either Nader’s book nor his Senate testimony made him an American hero. We’ve had public
advocates before. Rachel Carson exposed industrial pollution in her book, Silent Spring; Vance
Packard exposed advertising’s manipulation in his book, The Hidden Persuaders; and Upton
Sinclair exposed unhealthy conditions in the meat-packing industry in his book, The Jungle. What placed
Nader in the public limelight was the GM investigation that backfired. The GM President, on the advice
of his own counsel, had to publicly apologize to this young lawyer. Nader was 31 at the time. As Senator
Abraham Ribicoff said at these hearings:
And I may say to you, Mr. Nader, that I have read these reports very carefully, and
you and your family can be proud, because they have put you through the mill, and
they haven’t found a damn thing out about you….You have come out [of this
hearing] with a complete clean bill of health and character, with nothing
derogatory having been adduced. 25
Every witness confirmed that GM had spent several thousand dollars investigating one man and had
turned up absolutely nothing the least bit questionable. Few people could survive such an investigation
without the slightest blemish. Charles McCarry summed up in his biography of Nader:
The Subcommittee did something for Nader that the Senate had never done for an
individual in the history of the nation. It certified his virtue, gave birth to him as a
public figure, and equipped him with an image that has remained a combination of the
best qualities of Lincoln of Illinois and David of I Samuel 17. 26
That’s David of the Hebrew scriptures, who felled the warrior Goliath, champion of the Philistines
army. Goliath had shouted at the army of Israel: “Give me one man and we will fight in single combat.” 27
The young David, who had left his sheep to bring food to his older brothers in battle, heard this challenge
and was appalled at the fear of the Israelites. David convinced King Saul that if he could protect his sheep
from lions and bears, he could protect the “armies of the living God” from this Philistine. At first, David
put on armor but, not feeling comfortable in it, he chose instead his more familiar slingshot and pebbles.
David said to Goliath:
You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the
name of...the God of the armies of Israel that you have dared to insult. 28
Nader came in the name of the people. The public recognized the mighty power of the democratic
principles under which Nader did battle for them. As a result, the public clamored to him for help in
resolving all their problems with marketplace fraud, environmental pollution, unreliable technology, and
unresponsive government. Each day, Nader’s office filled with multiple duffel bags full of mail with
letters of complaint against such tribulations.
GATHERING THE TROOPS
A
25
fter the Senate hearings authenticated Nader’s virtue and GM’s harassment, Nader filed a lawsuit
against GM for invasion of privacy. He announced beforehand that he would use any money won
to start a consumer organization for similar investigative research. Although Nader asked for $2
McCarry, pg. 29.
Ibid., pg. 13.
27
I Samuel 17:10 from Hebrew Scripture, The Jerusalem Bible (Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1970).
28
I Samuel 17:45.
26
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
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million, the settlement was $425,000 of which $125,000 went to his lawyers.
In 1968 with the remaining money, Nader started the Center for Study of Responsive Law. In the first
five years of Nader’s investigative efforts by the original Nader Raiders, the following laws were passed:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Wholesome Meat Act of 1967.
The Wholesome Poultry Act of 1968.
The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968.
The Radiation Control for Health & Safety Act of 1968.
The Coal Mine Health & Safety Act of 1969.
The Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970.
In 1970, Nader started Public Citizen, Inc., an umbrella organization for several issue-specific
research groups: Congress Watch, Tax Reform, Health Research, etc. Other groups followed, although
not part of Public Citizen: Corporate Accountability, Critical Mass Energy, Disability Rights, Auto
Safety, Pension Rights, Clean Water, Aviation Action, as well as citizen groups on Insurance and
Broadcasting plus the campus-based, student-run Public Interest Research Groups set up in most states.
Through this network of groups, Nader provided an apprenticeship training program in investigative
research into the politics of power. The value of such an opportunity was unprecedented as 90 percent of
Nader’s staff was in their 20s.
Nader would assign one person to a research topic, such as investigating the transportation of
hazardous waste. That person was then responsible for all tasks from A to Z: gathering facts, designing
surveys, making telephone queries and person-to-person interviews, analyzing data, attending hearings,
testifying before Congressional committees, tracking legislation, and reviewing court cases. The end
result would be a press conference and a published report. People will work very hard under that kind of
freedom and responsibility—and trust! Back then, this work was also done without a computer or a
duplicating machine. We used typewriters and carbon paper.
My research assignment came in a midnight phone call from Nader. He told me to look into the free
materials that corporations send to teachers. That was it. Nothing more was ever said about how to go
about it. Three years later, my published report, Hucksters in the Classroom, 29 won the “George Orwell
Award for Honesty and Clarity in Public Language,” 30 which gained a spotlight on this corporate abuse
and gained me national and international press coverage.
Through his challenging direction and minimal oversight, Nader cloned avenging angels. One learned
all the professional skills for raising consciousness and substantiating criticism on the abuses of
commercial, industrial, and governmental power. It’s truly an internship in applied ethics.
AN ACTIVE CONSCIENCE ACTS
W
hen I met Ralph’s father, I realized the source of his intense sense of duty. The father used to
ask his children each evening over dinner—not “What did you do in school today?” but—
“What did you see done wrong today?” After they told their tales, the father would ask, “And
what are you going to do about it?” Nader stimulates this sense of duty in others by his prodigious
example. He believes the responsibility of citizenship is to the welfare of society. Significantly, his
consumer organization is called Public Citizen, not Ralph Nader, Inc., because the emphasis is on each
person to act against injustice and injury. Nader’s ethics are civil, not religious.
Another important lesson in ethics is imbedded in the quote by Lincoln Steffens, “Information is the
currency of democracy.” Nader extended this by his belief that “the most dangerous and intolerable
29
30
Sheila Harty, Hucksters in the Classroom: A Review of Industry Propaganda in Schools (Washington DC: Center for Study of
Responsive Law, 1979).
Committee on Public Doublespeak, National Council of Teachers of English.
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
Page 7
malignancy in a free society is secrecy in any form.” Yet this country has “a national aversion to
snitchers.” 31 It begins in grade school where insecure students manipulate for power through a cohort of
friends, subjugated by an undeserved loyalty. Think back: the bad boys of grade school were the ones
taunting “tattle tale, tattle tale.”
Yet the snitcher is in the right. The snitcher feels something is wrong and reports it. The absence of
that action is complacency, which is too close too complicity—and we have laws against that! Knowledge
plus silence is a grievous sin of omission. We’ve all heard Edmund Burke’s famous truth: “All that is
necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I prefer Robert Kennedy’s words that we
should always act against evil because “the devil needs an adversary.”
The America disdain for snitchers is fueled by jealousy, guilt, and fear: “jealousy,” because the snitch
obviously has conscience and courage; “guilt,” because no one has a clean conscience; and “fear,”
because they may be found out next. So the snitch is really protecting self. But policies of selfpreservation subvert conscience. Nader said, “common candor requires uncommon courage.” 32 The social
opprobrium against snitchers is something akin to “kill the messenger.” And the bad news that the
messenger brings is about our own failings as a civil society. One congressional aide remarked:
When Ralph was around, some of these congressmen were like daddies, driving at
the speed limit because the kids were in the car. 33
We need more such citizens whose mere presence induces higher standards. “The right to leak is dear
to Nader’s heart.” 34 Those who blow the whistle on wrongdoing continually provide Nader with the
inside information to pursue corporate crime and government neglect. However, most people belong to
the silent majority, thereby empowering corporate and government practices that contravene the public
interest. Nader believes that the obligation to protect and advance the public interest ought to overpower
any loyalty claimed by an institution. At his 1971 Conference on Professional Responsibility, Nader
defined a moral imperative when he said:
Whistleblowing, if carefully defined and protected by law, can become another of
those adaptive, self-implementing mechanisms which mark the relative difference
between a free society that relies on free institutions and a closed society that
depends on authoritarian institutions. 35
TEACHING MORAL IMPERATIVES
A
nother metaphor besides David and Goliath illustrates the role of a citizen activist. Do you know
what makes a good dance partner? Someone who gives weight. You can’t get a good swing in
unless you give full and equal weight against your partner. In fact, you will limit momentum and
throw your partner off balance if you fail to give full weight. All relationships need to apply this
principle: social exchanges, marriages, commercial contracts, and political debate. If you don’t give your
fair share of weight, the relationship will be imbalanced and any resulting work will be biased.
•
•
•
•
31
For our political system to work, we need to vote
For our economic system to work, we need to pay taxes
For our market system to work, we need to price fairly.
For a just society to work, we need to speak out and act.
Gorey, pg. 31.
Ralph Nader, Peter J. Petkas, and Kate Blackwell, Whistle Blowing: Ralph Nader's Report on the Conference on Professional
Responsibility (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1972).
33
McCarry.
34
Gorey, pg. 30.
35
Nader et al., “The Anatomy of Whistleblowing,” Whistle Blowing: The Report of the Conference on Professional
Responsibility (New York NY: Bantam, 1972).
32
S.T. Harty
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In addition, we must hold corporations and government accountable? That is also a duty of
citizenship. Citizens can give weight against these behemoths through strikes, boycotts, picketing, and
petitioning. Such citizen initiatives can redirect political and commercial institutions. Yet this is not
innate; it must be taught, and it must be practiced. Forget the grade school essay on “My Summer
Vacation.” Kids ought to be challenged with an investigative research project. High school science classes
ought to be testing the local air, water, and soil. Social studies classes ought to be proactive in resolving a
community problem. English classes ought to be writing profiles on local government officials. One often
hears that without “money” or “connections” no change is possible. Nader shows us a third way—
“concentrated intelligence.” Persevere from facts to action.
In 1970, Nader recruited six teenage girls and a young teacher from their school in Connecticut 36 to
form a task force for investigating conditions at nursing homes. Their spring study project extended into
full-time summer work. Two of the girls became aides at a local nursing homes; two interviewed officials
and staff at other nursing homes; and two did intensive research with documents and complaint letters.
Their discoveries were published as the Ralph Nader Study Group Report on Nursing Home Reform, 37
which led to the girls testifying before a Senate Special Committee on Aging. 38 They were teenagers.
Still, the naysayers persist: “what can one person do?” In a commencement address in 1970 at his
high school, Nader said:
Almost every single significant breakthrough has come from the spark, the drive, the
initiative of just one individual. You must believe this.
Indeed, Nader’s successful battle with GM teaches the lesson of “David and Goliath.” It’s not that
Goliath is too big to hit. He’s too big to miss!
© Copyright, Sheila Harty, 2011
Sheila Harty is a published and award-winning writer with a BA and MA in Theology. Her major was in Catholicism, her minor in
Islam, and her thesis in scriptural Judaism. Harty employed her theology degrees in the political arena as “applied ethics,” working
for 20 years in Washington DC as a public interest policy advocate, including ten years with Ralph Nader at his Center for Study of
Responsive Law. On sabbatical from Nader, she taught “Business Ethics” at University College Cork, Ireland. In DC, she also
worked for U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, the World Bank, the United Nations
University, the Congressional Budget Office, and the American Assn for the Advancement of Science. She was a consultant with the
Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations in Geneva, the National Adult Education Assn in Dublin, and the
International Organization of Consumers Unions in The Hague. Her first book, Hucksters in the Classroom, won the 1980 George
Orwell Award for Honesty & Clarity in Public Language. She moved to St. Augustine, Florida, in 1996 to care for her aging parents,
36
Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, CT.
Claire Townsend, Project Director, Kate Blackwell, editor, Old Age: The Last Segregation, Ralph Nader's Study Group Report
on Nursing Homes (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1970).
38
Senate Subcommittee on Long-Term Care, Washington, D.C., February 9-16, 1970.
37
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
Page 9
where she also works as a freelance writer and editor. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Her website is
http:www.sheila-t-harty.com
S.T. Harty
Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
Page 10
Bibliography
The following list of books only reflects those published before 1999.
BOOKS BY NADER
Action for a Change: A Student's Manual for Public Interest Organizing by Ralph Nader and Donald
Ross with Joseph Highland (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1972).
Beware by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Law-Arts Publications, 1971).
The Big Boys: Power and Position in American Business by Ralph Nader and William Taylor (New York
NY: Pantheon Books, 1986).
The Menace of Atomic Energy by Ralph Nader and John Abbotts (New York NY: W.W. Norton, 1977).
Taming the Giant Corporation: The Case for Federal Chartering by Ralph Nader, Mark Green, and Joel
Seligman (New York NY: W.W. Norton, 1976).
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile by Ralph Nader (New York
NY: Bantam Book, 1973).
Whistle Blowing: Ralph Nader's Report on the Conference on Professional Responsibility edited by Ralph
Nader, Peter J. Petkas, and Kate Blackwell (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1972).
Who's Poisoning America: Corporate Polluters & Their Victims in the Chemical Age by Ralph Nader,
Ronald Brownstein, and John Richard with Introduction by Lois Gibbs (San Francisco CA: Sierra Club
Books, 1981).
You and Your Pension by Kate Blackwell and Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1973).
NADER STUDY GROUP REPORTS
Bitter Wages: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Disease and Injury on the Job by Joseph A. Page and
Mary-Win O'Brien with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1973).
Citibank: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on First National City Bank by David Leinsdorf and Donald
Etra with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1973).
Old Age—The Last Segregation: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Nursing Homes by Claire
Townsend, Project Director, and edited by Kate Blackwell with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New
York NY: Bantam Books, 1970).
Politics of Land: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California by Robert C. Fellmeth
with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1971).
Sowing the Wind: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Food Safety and the Chemical Harvest by
Harrison Wellford with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1971).
The Closed Enterprise System: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Antitrust Enforcement by Mark J.
Geen, Beverly C. Moore, Jr., and Bruce Wasserstein with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY:
Bantam Books, 1972).
The Company State: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on DuPont in Delaware by James Phelan and
Robert Pozen with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1973).
The Interstate Commerce Omission: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on the Interstate Commerce
Commission and Transportation by Robert Fellmeth with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY:
Grossman Publishers, 1970).
The Judiciary Committees: Ralph Nader's Congress Project Study on the House and Senate Judiciary
Committees by Peter H. Schuck with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Viking Press, 1975).
The Last Stand: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on the National Forests by Daniel R. Barney with
Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1974).
The Madness Establishment: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on the National Institute of Mental
Health by Franklin D. Chu and Sharland Trotter with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY:
Grossman Publishers, 1974).
The Monopoly Makers: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Regulation and Competition edited by
Mark J. Green with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1973).
The Nader Report on the Federal Trade Commission by Edward F. Cox, Robert C. Fellmeth, and John E.
Schultz with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grove Press, Inc., 1969).
The Paper Plantation: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on the Pulp and Paper Industry in Maine by
William C. Osborn with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Viking Press, 1974).
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Ethics of Citizenship from a Nader Raider
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The Water Lords: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Industry and Environmental Crisis in Savannah,
Georgia by James Fallows with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1971).
The Workers: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Labor by Kenneth Lasson with Introduction by
Ralph Nader (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1971).
Vanishing Air: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Air Pollution by John C. Esposito and Larry J.
Silverman with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1970).
Water Wasteland: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Water Pollution by David Zwick with Marcy
Benstock with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Bantam Books, 1971).
Who Runs Congress? Ralph Nader's Congress Project Report by Mark J. Green with Michael Calabrese,
Lynn Darling, Bruce Rosenthal, James M. Fallows, and David R. Zwick with Introduction by Ralph
Nader (New York NY: Bantam Book, 1979).
BOOKS BY NADER’S GROUPS
A Public Citizen's Action Manual by Donald K. Ross with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY:
Grossman Publishers, 1973).
Coal Mine Health and Safety: The Case of West Virginia by J. Davitt McAteer with Introduction by
Ralph Nader (New York NY: Praeger Publishers, 1970).
Corporate Crime and Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust by Russell
Mokhiber (San Francisco CA: Sierra Club Books, 1988).
Hucksters in the Classroom: A Review of Industry Propaganda in Schools by Sheila Harty (Washington
DC: Center for Study of Responsive Law, 1979).
Lost Frontier: The Marketing of Alaska by John Hanrahan and Peter Gruenstein with Introduction by
Ralph Nader (New York NY: W.W. Norton, 1977).
Periodicals of Public Interest Organizations: A Citizen's Guide (Washington DC: Commission for the
Advancement of Public Interest Organizations, 1979).
Poletown: Community Betrayed by Janie Wylie with Introduction by Ralph Nader (Urbana IL: University
of Illinois Press, 1989).
Public Interest Perspectives: The Next Four Years, Proceedings from the First Major Gathering of Public
Interest Advocates, December 6, 1976, Introduction by Dave Lenny (Washington DC: Public Citizen, 1977).
Ralph Nader Presents: A Citizen's Guide to Lobbying by Marc Caplan with Introduction by Ralph Nader
(New York NY: Dembner Books, 1983).
Reverse the Charges: How To Save $$$ on Your Phone Bill by Joe Waz and Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Edited by
Samuel A. Simon with Introduction by Ralph Nader (Washington DC: National Citizens Committee for
Broadcasting, 1981).
Small on Safety: The Designed-in Dangers of the Volkswagen by Lowell Dodge, Ralf Hotchkiss, Carl
Nash, Stephen Oesch, and Bernard O'Meara (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1972).
The Big Business Reader: Essays on Corporate America edited by Mark J. Green and Robert Massie, Jr.,
with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Pilgrim Press, 1980).
The Shadow Government: The Government's Multi-Billion Dollar Giveaway of its Decisionmaking
Powers to Private Management Consultants, "Experts," and Think Tanks by Daniel Guttman and Barry
Willner with Introduction by Ralph Nader (New York NY: Random House, 1976).
The Spoiled System: A Call for Civil Service Reform by M. Weldon Brewer, Jr., with Introduction by
Ralph Nader (New York NY: Charterhouse, 1975).
BOOKS ABOUT NADER
Citizen Nader by Charles McCarry (New York NY: Saturday Review Press, 1972).
Nader and the Power of Everyman by Hays Gorey (New York NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1975).
The Investigation of Ralph Nader: General Motors vs. One Determined Man by Thomas Whiteside (New
York NY: Arbor House, 1972).
BOOKS BY NADER ASSOCIATES
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For the People: A Consumer Action Handbook by Joanne Manning Anderson with Introduction by Ralph
Nader (Menlo Park CA: Addison-Wesley, 1977).
Giant Killers by Michael Pertschuk (New York NY: W.W. Norton, 1986).
Mobile Homes—The Low-Cost Housing Hoax: A Report by the Center for Auto Safety, edited by Lynda
McDonnell, Project Director with Introduction by Lowell Dodge (New York NY: Grossman Publishers, 1975).
No Access to Law: Alternatives to the American Judicial System by Laura Nader (New York NY:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980).
Proudly We Hail: Profiles of Public Citizens in Action by Kenneth Lasson (New York NY: Viking Press, 1975).
Taking Ideals Seriously: The Case for a Lawyers' Public Interest Movement edited by Robert L. Ellis with
Introduction by Susan Kellock (Washington DC: Equal Justice Foundation, 1981).
The Other Government: The Unseen Power of Washington Lawyers by Mark J. Green (New York NY:
Viking Press, 1975).
When Consumers Complain by Arthur Best (New York NY: Columbia University Press, 1981).