Nader’s traditions provide a focus for Arab American Heritage Month

Ralph Nader is known for his lifetime of progressive activism and fearless critique. Yet in this fresh and inspiring book The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons from an American Childhood, Nader takes a look backward - at a serene and enriching childhood spent in bucolic Winsted, Connecticut. 

From listening to learning, from patriotism to argument, from work to simple enjoyment, Nader revisits seventeen traditions he learned from his parents, his siblings, and the people in his community, and draws from them inspiring lessons for today’s society. 

Blending memoir and thoughtful inspiration, Nader offers readers a chance to look back on a time in American history when the family and the natural world were central in a child’s understanding of how to be a conscientious adult. 

In his warmest and most personal writing to date, Nader fondly describes his father’s restaurant business and how it taught him about work, community, how to share in the spirit of others, along with the value of his mother’s Lebanese cooking and how it defined his relationship with his heritage.