Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile [Paperback]

Ralph Nader (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 417 pages
• Publisher: Grossman; 2nd Expanded edition (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670741590
• ISBN-13: 978-0670741595
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,199,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Named by The Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century, Ralph Nader has helped us drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments for more than four decades.

The crusading attorney first made headlines in 1965 with his book Unsafe at Any Speed, a scathing indictment that lambasted the auto industry for producing unsafe vehicles. The book led to congressional hearings and automobile safety laws passed in 1966, including the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He was instrumental in the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC), and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Many lives have been saved by Nader's involvement in the recall of millions of unsafe consumer products, including defective motor vehicles, and in the protection of laborers and the environment. By starting dozens of citizen groups, Ralph Nader has created an atmosphere of corporate and governmental accountability.

Ralph Nader's most popular books include, from Seven Stories, In Pursuit of Justice and The Ralph Nader Reader. His most recent bestselling books were The Good Fight (2004) and The Seventeen Traditions (2007), both published by HarperCollins. "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" is Nader's first work of imagination. It will be published by Seven Stories Press on September 22, 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST !!!, June 27, 2008

By 

Milton Bertin Jones (Santiago, Chile) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile (Hardcover)

As a Traffic Safety Specialist, this book is a MUST, this old book needs to be mandatory reading for any person interested in Road Safety, Ralph documented the resistance of car companies to the introduction of safety features, like safety belts, that looks timely today, for example with the lobby that produce a delay in the mandatory fitting of air bags. Also you will learn how the primitive road safety components, still used in USA, called the three E's (Engineering, Enforcement, Education ) was born as a device to direct the efforts to the community away from the real problems of safety of the vehicles, some of the that was sell with tires that don't resist the weight of the fully loaded vehicle !.

Finally you can understand the lacking level of road safety in US versus European countries that have in service safety policies that will reduce the absolute number of killed by 30% over 5 years.

This book is the necessary building stone to the effort to make car manufacturers accountable for the safety level of his products.

I can't understand why some publisher is not doing a new edition of it.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for persons interested in Road Safety, March 15, 2002

By 

Milton Bertin Jones (Santiago, Chile) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unsafe at any speed; the designed-in dangers of the American automobile

As a Traffic Safety Specialist, this book is a MUST, this old book needs to be mandatory reading for any person interested in Road Safety, Ralph documented the resistance of car companies to the introduction of safety features, like safety belts, that looks timely today, for example with the lobby that produce a delay in the mandatory fitting of air bags. Also you will learn how the primitive road safety components, still used in USA, called the three E's (Engineering, Enforcement, Education ) was born as a device to direct the efforts to the community away from the real problems of safety of the vehicles, some of the that was sell with tires that don't resist the weight of the fully loaded vehicle !.

Finally you can understand the lacking level of road safety in US versus European countries that have in service safety policies that will reduce the absolute number of killed by 30% over 5 years.

This book is the necessary building stone to the effort to make car manufacturers accountable for the safety level of his products.

I can't understand why some publisher is not doing a new edition of it.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for Consumers!, January 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile (Paperback)

This is one of the best books you will ever read as a consumer or environmentalist. You will love the way Nader brings to shame the Automotive Industries of the 50s and 60s on the issues of saftey and health (which should be the most important, duh!). His persuasive skill to make logic so obvious is fantasic.