Ralph Nader has been a praised citizen activist who is single handedly responsible for giving us seatbelts, clean water regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Freedom of Information Act, and much more that would surely fill this column. So why did Mr. Nader risk all of his prestige to run in the 2000 election, that is the subject of his new book, Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President. Nader exclaims that his citizen crusades of the past are impossible to accomplish today because, “Over the course of my work in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans have drawn so close to the monied, corporate interests that the citizens are shut out. This is why I ran for president.”(20) Even though close friends and colleagues had been voicing the same worries such as Jesse Jackson telling him in 1998, “I’m gonna run. We can’t leave the party in the hands of Gore and Gephardt.” (250), these close friends whom had exclaimed the same problems with the Democratic Party, all of a sudden changed their tune when they heard of his candidacy for the Green party. Nader wrote this book to give his story as to why he ran for President, to give an in detailed look at his campaign including the neglect of the media, the illegal actions of both Republicans and Democrats to shut any third party out such as being kicked off of a public Universities campus when he tried to view the debates with a ticket, and his view of our countries problems and their solutions. This book is written in a very coherent manner, however you’re going to have to have a dictionary handy, it seems as though he likes to use the thesaurus quite often. This aspect, coupled with some very long sentences demand that attention of the reader. Anyone looking to take the GRE in the near future should read this because I, having taken the GRE last summer, have noticed more vocabulary words in this book than in the Princeton Reviews study guide. One thing is for certain, after reading this book, your vocabulary will be excellent and your attention span will have increased enough to stay awake through one of our hour and a half classes. Crashing the Party is written with a ton of evidence to back Mr. Nader’s views. He rarely states an opinion without giving some form of support either from his personal experience or from his own research. He gives an in detailed view of his campaign, sometimes even stating the events by the time and date in a chronological order, like a diary. The appendix is satisfactory because it gives some mundane facts such as his campaign staff which isn’t really interesting, but I suppose he felt obligated to give them credit for all their hard work; if I were on his staff I probably would’ve like to see my name in his book as well. There are a few appendices that were definitely worth reading, such as a transcript of a speech given by Tim Robbins, the actor from the Shawshank redemption, describing how he has been criticized and ostracized for supporting Nader’s campaign. He very elegantly writes how every right and privilege we now take for granted such as women’s writes, the abolition of slavery, and freedom itself were uphill battles against the establishment. In conclusion, this bestseller is a definite read for anyone whom is interested in understanding the corruption of our government and what to do about it. The book is filled to the brim with information the newspapers and TV shows never told you. However, if you are an apathetic spectator who understands that ignorance is bliss and by not knowing the problems of our government it makes life a lot easier, than perhaps the funnies would be a better read.