Editing Ralph Nader (section)

===''Unsafe at Any Speed''===
Nader gained national attention with the 1965 publication of his journalistic exposé ''[[Unsafe at Any Speed]]''. The book, critical of the automotive industry, argued that many American automobiles were generally unsafe to operate. For the book, Nader researched case files from more than a hundred lawsuits then pending against [[General Motors]]' [[Chevrolet Corvair]] to support his assertions.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mickey Z |author-link=Mickey Z |title=50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know |location=New York |publisher=[[The Disinformation Company]] |year=2005 |page=87 |isbn=1-932857-18-4}}</ref>

The book became an immediate bestseller, but also prompted a backlash from General Motors (GM), which [[smear campaign|attempted to discredit Nader]]. GM tapped Nader's phone in an attempt to obtain salacious information and, when that failed, GM hired prostitutes in an attempt to catch him in a compromising situation.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2005/scene_longhine_novdec05.msp |title=Ralph Nader's museum of tort law will include relics from famous lawsuits—if it ever gets built |date = December 2005|work=LegalAffairs.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=May 7, 2005 |work=Federal Highway Administration |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/safetyep.cfm |title=President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Role in Highway Safety: Epilogue&nbsp;— The Changing Federal Role}}</ref> Nader, by then working as an unpaid consultant to [[United States Senator]] [[Abe Ribicoff]], reported to the senator that he suspected he was being followed. Ribicoff convened an inquiry that called GM CEO James Roche who admitted, when placed under oath, that the company had hired a private detective agency to investigate Nader. Nader sued GM for [[invasion of privacy]], settling the case for $425,000 and using the proceeds to found the activist organization known as the Center for the Study of Responsive Law.<ref name="nation11"/>

A year following the publication of ''Unsafe at Any Speed'', Congress unanimously enacted the [[National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act]]. [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives]] [[John William McCormack]] said the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was brought about by the "crusading spirit of one individual who believed he could do something: Ralph Nader".<ref>{{cite web |title=Congress Acts on Traffic and Auto Safety |publisher=[[Congressional Quarterly]] |work=CQ Almanac |year=1966 |pages=266–268 |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal66-1301349 |access-date=April 27, 2016 |quote=Breaking into the traffic safety inertia was the publication in November 1965 of ''Unsafe At Any Speed,'' a book written by Ralph Nader a 32-year-old Connecticut lawyer who had served as a consultant for the Department of Labor and a Senate subcommittee in 1964–65. House Speaker John W. McCormack (D Mass.) Oct. 21, 1966, credited the final outcome of the traffic safety bill to the 'crusading spirit of one individual who believed he could do something: Ralph Nader'.}}</ref>