Mr. Whyte's book is a needed contribution to the history of automotive safety in the United States. His book recounts the infamous Ribicoff hearings of the 1965-66, which culminated in passage of the Vehicle Safety Act. This federal law created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA sets safety standards governing the sale of new motor vehicles (and parts) as well as overseeing automobile recalls.As Whyte details, much of this federal law was based on overreaction to perceived issues with the Chevrolet Corvair. Further overreaction resulted from GM's boneheaded move to spy on Ralph Nader. Nader served as the "key witness" to Ribicoff's hearings. Whether Nader is as pure as he holds himself out to be is up for question, as Whyte demonstrates. For example, the nature of Nader's ties to the trial attorneys involved in litigation against General Motors remained fuzzy. Overreaction is often a typical legislative response to an isolated issue. Here, for example, Congress should have focused on encouraging drivers to buckle up, drive sober, and within the speed limits. Those three things would have done a lot more to saving lives than creating yet another federal bureaucracy. In fact, other countries that have focused on those three things have far exceeded the United States in terms of road safety.The book should be read by any automotive historian, automotive engineer, auto safety lawyer, journalist, and any car buff. Regardless where you stand on the issue of causal factors of automobile crashes, this book presents a balanced approach to weighing evidence on both sides, concluding that the focus on crash avoidance would have served the nation better than the obsession with crashworthiness (second collision).