cover image Told You So: The Big Book of Weekly Columns

Told You So: The Big Book of Weekly Columns

Ralph Nader . Seven Stories, $29.95 trade paper (540p) ISBN 978-1609804749

The iconic consumer affairs crusader and former presidential candidate assembles a trove of more than 250 opinion pieces dating from some of his earliest%C2%A01970s gigs in the commentariat%C2%A0to musings through 2011. An unrepentant progressive, Nader's devastating critiques of the news media, the financial sector, Supreme Court, among other institutions will warm the hearts of like-minded readers. Several columns scrutinize President Obama for a host of deficiencies including his insistence on seeking a middle ground that does not exist, genuflecting to big business, and his failure to fight for a single payer health care system. Nader is at his polemical best inveighing against specific issues from the skyrocketing costs of college education to the Keystone XL pipeline to new traffic safety concerns that harken back to his pivotal game-changing 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed. Admirers of Nader will find much to savor here as will anyone seeking to understand the mind of a man who singlehandedly sparked a new era of citizen-driven political and consumer activism. (June)