My boyhood in a small town in Connecticut was shaped by my
family, my friends, our neighbors, my chores and hobbies,
the town's culture and environment, its schools, libraries,
factories, and businesses, their workers, and by storms that
came from nowhere to disrupt everything. . . . Yet childhood
in any family is a mysterious experience. . . . What shapes
the mind, the personality, the character?
So begins this unexpected and extraordinary book by Ralph
Nader. Known for his lifetime of selfless activism, Nader
now looks back to the earliest days of his own life, to his
serene and enriching childhood in bucolic Winsted,
Connecticut. From listening to learning, from patriotism to
argument, from work to simple enjoyment, Nader revisits
seventeen key traditions he absorbed from his parents, his
siblings, and the people in his community, and draws from
them inspiring lessons for today's society. Warmly human,
rich with sensory memories and lasting wisdom, it offers a
kind of modern-day parable of how we grow from children into
responsible adults—a reminder of a time when nature and
community were central to the way we all learned and lived.
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