A tornado of controversy had touched down in the nation’s capital. A young activist named Ralph Nader had published a book called Unsafe at Any Speed on December 1, 1965. Its message: Automobiles were killing off Americans at the rate of nearly 48,000 a year and that number was rising fast, and car manufacturers were to blame. Fueled by greed, Nader claimed, they peddled the drug of speed and style, ignoring safety altogether. Unsafe at Any Speed’s tone was extreme, so much so that it read like a document of religious fanaticism from the first page: “For over a half century the automobile has
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