Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man

Abstract

When Goodall first presented her discoveries about chimpanzees at a scientific conference, she was ridiculed by the chairman. She was too young, too blond, too pretty to be a serious scientist, and worse yet, she had virtually no formal scientific training. She had been a secretarial school graduate whom Leakey had sent out to study chimps only when he couldn't find anyone better qualified. And he couldn't tell her what to do in the field--nobody could--because no one before had made such an intensive and long-term study. Biographer Peterson shows how remarkable Goodall's accomplishments were, detailing not only how she revolutionized the study of primates, our closest relatives, but how she helped set radically new standards and a new intellectual style in the study of animal behavior. And he reveals the very private quest that led to another sharp turn in her life, from scientist to activist.--From publisher description.; Daddy's machine, Nanny's garden -- War and a disappearing father -- A child's peace -- Child in the trees -- Chidhood's end -- Dream deferred -- Dream returned -- Africa! -- Olduvai -- Love and other complications -- The menagerie -- London interlude -- Lolui Island and the road to Gombe -- Summer in paradise -- David's gift -- Primates and paradigms -- The magical and the mundane -- A photographic failure -- A different language -- First scientific conferences -- A photographic success -- Intimate encounters -- Love and romance, passion and marriage -- Babies and bananas -- A permanent research center -- Gombe from afar -- A peripatetic Dr. van Lawick and the paleolithic vulture -- Epidemic -- Grublin -- Promise and loss -- Hugo's book -- Regime changes -- Abundance, estrangement, and death -- Friends, allies, and lovers -- Things fall down--and sometimes apart -- Domesticity and disaster -- A new normal -- Picking up the pieces -- Well-being in a cage -- Orphans, children, and sanctuaries -- Circumnavigations -- Messages -- Woman leaping forward.