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Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man | 
 enlarge | Author: Dale Peterson
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy Used: $0.66
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 259602
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 2.1
ISBN: 0547053568
Dewey Decimal Number: 590.92
EAN: 9780547053561
ASIN: 0547053568
Publication Date: April 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This essential biography of one of the most influential women of the past century shows how truly remarkable Jane Goodall's accomplishments have been. Goodall was a secretarial school graduate when Louis Leakey, unable to find someone with more fitting credentials, first sent her to Gombe to study chimpanzees. In this acclaimed work, Dale Peterson details how this young woman of uncommon resourcefulness and pluck would go on to set radically new standards in the study of animal behavior. He vividly captures the triumphs and setbacks of her dramatic life, including the private quest that led to her now-famous activism.
Peterson, a longtime Goodall collaborator, has a unique knowledge of his subject. Candid and illuminating, this work will be a revelation even to readers who are familiar with the public Goodall as presented in her own writing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 A great book about a great woman November 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dale Peterson has written a great book about a great woman. The book is long, I admit, but interesting from page to page. The book clearly reflects how Jane Goodall has first ventured into Africa, made friends with the chimpanzees, and then developed an accurate sense of humanity. I had read this book after reading Jane Goodall's REASON FOR HOPE, and Dale Peterson describes her life almost like she herself describes it in her book. An example: Jane Goodall had a very happy marriage with her second husband, Derek, and was badly hurt by his long illness and death. As I stated in a review of REASON FOR HOPE, Jane Goodall is an excellent humanist and merits the Nobel Peace Prize.
Re-writing the book April 5, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Louis Leakey put it best. Jane Goodall's work in Gombe prompted a complete revision in how humans view themselves. The subtitle could well stand as the lead for this book. In this exquisitely detailed biography, Dale Peterson depicts how Jane's personality led to a number of fresh insights about how the other animals live and how science learned new ways to study them. Coming out of a rather obscure and unpromising life, Jane Goodall rose to prominence by unusal methods. She applied a sense of caring, developed through attention to her many pets, to the study of chimpanzees. Lacking any preconceptions about what chimpanzees were "supposed" to do, she was able to learn what they actually did do. To say her approach disturbed many "establishment" researchers is putting it mildly. However, her other major attribute in support of her caring, is persistence.
There's a wonderful irony in the circumstances of Jane's becoming a foremost field primatologist. In an era when women reject being "objectified", it was Louis Leakey's roving eye and philandering habits that propelled Jane into the African bush. Having found evidence of early humans at Olduvai, he wanted some signs of evolutionary links. Chimpanzees, as Darwin had noted a century before, were the most likely indicator. Peterson points out that science was woefully lacking in data on apes. They're elusive and shy. It was Jane Goodall who demonstrated the value of "habituation" - long, enduring and subtle contact with her subjects - that allowed her to see what nobody else had before. Chimpanzees use tools, and they're effective hunters. It was the latter trait, the author notes, that helped Jane and her associates to begin formulating the structure of how chimpanzee society is formed.
Those findings led Jane Goodall to both challenge old, staid thinking about field research and chimpanzee life in particular. More, they resulted in Jane's methods and reports led her to become a major figure in science. Whatever Leakey's carnal ambitions toward Jane, he saw her worth. He propelled her through Cambridge's graduate programme almost by brute force as Peterson describes well. Yet, even that endorsement didn't make up for the work Jane had to produce to earn her degree. By that time, she was writing for National Geographic, producing journal papers and books. Oh, yes. She also got married and had a baby.
The richness of detail may deter a few readers of this book. It shouldn't. Jane Goodall, her diminutive stature and uncomplicated expression belie a powerful individual. Peterson isn't simply filling pages, he's building a picture of that individual. That image cannot be imparted with a few strokes of a broad brush. Jane Goodall, under the author's careful touch, isn't a flashy genius, but a dedicated hard worker who built up her own methods one bit at a time. The edifice is indeed imposing as the work led her on speaking tours, teaching assignments, and negotiations for funding, all while raising her family and running a research programme. It's not a simple life Peterson is relating and its complexity cannot be conveyed in a few words. Goodall is an imposing figure in science and the many details are but a start in doing her justice. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Jane Goodall Merits The Nobel Peace Prize ! March 5, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This comprehensive and compelling biography of Jane Goodall is truly inspiring. For decades Jane Goodall has valiantly and tirelessly traveled the planet imploring the world community to have reverence for the lives of humans and the animal kingdom. She is arguably the foremost advocate on behalf of primates and other endangered species. Her whole life has been dedicated to espousing universal peace and the kinship of all life. The brilliant and compassionate Jane Goodall merits a Nobel Peace Prize. Now !
 A bit long, but oh, what a ride.... February 24, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I do agree with another reviewer that Jane Goodall, The Woman who redefined Man is a wee bit longish. Okay, at 714 pages plus an index it is a long read. However, I disagree that the attention spent on her early life is the culprit. Nothing could be further from the truth. Peterson lavishes many pages to Goodall's upbringing; her strong and directing mother and her danger loving race car father, her love of competition and her love of detail are overly mundane I feel that they tell us a lot about the person that Goodall eventually becomes. What other person, woman or man in 1960 was willing to chuch everything to study monkeys?
Peterson obviously loves his subject. As a teenager I remember hearing stories about this young and attractive woman who had devoted her life to studying primate behavior. I didn't realize until much later that she had been sent by Leakey. I certainly didn't know until reading this book that Goodall had been trained as a secretary. How the fates have a way of stepping in and changing things....a truth that is delivered to any reader of this book.
Jane Goodall has contributed a huge body of information to the world by her devoted work and study. Reading Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man will impress you and awe you. A truly great read.
A Must to Read February 17, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Great insight into a legendary woman. She is totally amazing!
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