Activist Ralph Nader became twentieth-century America's prime crusader in matters of serious public concern. Since the mid-1960s his name has been synonymous with consumer protection and, although the consumer rights movement did not originate with him, he publicly expanded, publicized, and legitimized it. Nader elected a broad focus for his cause with the basic goal of protecting the individual citizen from corporate might, concentrating not merely on one issue of public concern, but seeking out the effects of profit-motivated industry on the public in many different arenas, from water pollution and airline safety to insurance, free trade, and law.

Born the son of Lebanese immigrants and raised in Winstead, Connecticut, Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and got his law degree from Harvard in 1958. While in law school, his studies of auto injury cases sparked his interest in unsafe automobile designs. He practiced...