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Title: Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon by Justin Martin ISBN: 0-7382-0563-X Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Muckraker can't stop raking the mud
Comment: The intelligent, take no prisoners, crusader of consumer rights is featured in Justin Martin's new book, Nader: Crusader, Icon Spoiler. Martin is also the author of Greenspan: the Man Behind the Money. Overall, Nader: Crusader, Icon Spoiler, 288 pages, reads well and is organized, but suffers from what appears to be some author-induced opinions that detract from the book's authenticity.
Still, the book is an interesting story about a guy who never gives up, made life a little safer on the highways, but doesn't know how to stop when he's ahead. As Martin points out by quoting Teddy Roosevelt, muckrakers are an important part of society, but must know when to stop raking the muck. Nader, according to Martin and other accounts, just doesn't know when to stop stirring up the muck.
Martin brings us through Nader's early life in Connecticut, his college and law school days at Princeton and Harvard and then his life struggle against for profit corporations. Ultimately the theme of Nader's life, as described by Martin, is essentially a life long vendetta against the corporation. In the early days of Nader's career, as told by Martin, Nader had the issues behind him. Auto safety, for instance, was an important issue which Nader championed with much success. In the later years, however, Nader picked fight after fight, including a fight with President Jimmy Carter, according to Martin. This fight just seemed so unnecessary, according to Martin. This experience highlighted by Martin brings out the defensive, never satisfied, approach Nader always gives to his project. Nader is more worried about looking like a compromiser than in getting a good result, according to Martin and this comes out in this episode.
The political quotes that Martin chooses in the Nader biography are fun to read, but some of Martin's chosen quotes to describe a point he wants to make seem unnecessarily targeted to the more liberal audience likely to read this book and, in my view, take away from the author's credibility.
For instance, Martin seems to take some unnecessary pot shots at Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush. Martin, in describing how Nader disliked the typical Ivy Leaguer, chooses this quote by Nader: "At Princeton, the athlete was king... Donald Rumsfeld was on the wrestling team and he would swagger around campus." Another unnecessary quote was when Martin is describing how hard working the Nader workers were; Martin chooses to insert a quote by one of Nader's guys from Yale who attended at the same time as our current President, "When I [referring to the Nader worker] was studying..., Bush was getting drunk at the frat house across the street." These quotes appear to add little more than some cheap pot shot humor that should not be used in a serious biography.
In any event, other than these unnecessary quips, the book is an interesting overview of Ralph Nader.
Rating: 3
Summary: The muckraker doesn't know when to stop raking the mud
Comment: The intelligent, take no prisoners, crusader of consumer rights is featured in Justin Martin's new book, Nader, Crusader, Icon Spoiler. Overall, the book, 281 pages, reads well and is organized, but suffers from what appears to be some author-induced opinions which detract from the book's authenticity. Still, the book is an interesting story about a guy who never gave up, made life a little safer on the highways, but doesn't know how to stop when he's ahead. This, leading to the title of this review, in a quote by Teddy Roosevelt listed in the Nader biography by Martin to describe Nader.
Martin brings us through Nader's early life in Conneticut, his college and law school days at Princeton and Harvard and then his life stuggle against for profit corporations. Ultimately the theme of Nader's life, as described by Martin, is essentially a life long vendetta against the corporation. In the early days of Nader's career, as told by Martin, Nader had the issues behind him. Auto safety, for instance, was an important issue which Nader championed with much success. In the later years, however, Nader picked fight after fight, including a fight with President Jimmy Carter, according to Martin. This fight just seemed so unnecessary, according to Martin.
The political quotes choosen by Martin in the Nader biography are fun to read, but some of Martin's choosen quotes to describe a point he wants to make seem unnecessarily targeted to the potential reader audience which, in my opinion, takes away from the biography.
For instance, Martin seems to take some unnecessary pot shots at Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush. Martin, in describing how Nader despised the typical Ivy Leaguer, chooses this quote by Nader:
"At Princeton, the athlete was king... Donald Rumsfeld was on the wrestling team and he would swagger around campus."
Another unnecessary quote was when Martin is describing how hard working the Nader workers were; Martin chooses to insert a quote by one of Nader's guys from Yale who attended at the same time as our current President, "When I [referring to the Nader worker] was studying..., Bush was getting drunk at the frat house across the street." These quotes appear to add little more than some cheap pot shot humor that should not be used in a serious biography.
Rating: 5
Summary: Unbiased portrait of a true American iconoclast
Comment: I'm admittedly biased towards Ralph Nader, having volunteered and voted for him during the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections. That being said, I found this book to be remarkably balanced. It's neither a hagiography nor a hatchet job, but rather gives equal weight to Nader's achievements and shortcomings.
Martin writes extremely well, with a brisk pace: by page 30 Nader has finished law school, and by page 45 he's written "Unsafe at Any Speed" and is ready to take on GM! Despite the quick pacing, Martin doesn't gloss over Nader's early years: he presents the reader with all the necessary information on Nader's upbringing and influences, relying on well-chosen anecdotes rather than tedious genealogies.
The section on Nader's crusade against GM practically reads like a spy thriller. Fans of Nader will thrill during his "peak period" of 1969-1976, when it seemed he could do no wrong. But those same fans will scratch their head later on, when Nader inexplicably sabotages some of his own initiatives through a refusal to compromise with Congress.
Martin quickens the pace of the book yet again when detailing Nader's quixotic presidential runs. He describes the alienation Nader felt after being rebuffed by the Clinton/Gore administration - a feeling than no doubt sparked his candidacy and defused any feelings of remorse at possibly costing Gore the 2000 election. The irony of Nader's career is that he achieved the most when Republicans were in power, because he expected little of their administrations and focused on galvanizing grassroots efforts to achieve reform.
This is an excellent biography, a revealing portrait of a man who has devoted his life to consumer advocacy and making America a safer place to live.
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Title: Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender by Ralph Nader ISBN: 0312302584 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 14 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Ralph Nader Reader by Ralph Nader, Barbara Ehrenreich ISBN: 1583220577 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Ralph Nader : Battling for Democracy by Kevin Graham ISBN: 0970032307 Publisher: Windom Publishing Co. Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Case Against Free Trade: Gatt, Nafta and the Globalization of Corporate Power (An Earth Island Press Book) by Ralph Nader, William Greider, Margaret Atwood, David Philips, Pat Choate ISBN: 1556431694 Publisher: North Atlantic Books Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City by Andrew Kirtzman ISBN: 0060093897 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 15 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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