Product Description

This best-selling classic tells the story of one of the world's greatest scientific adventures. Jane Goodall was a young secretarial school graduate when the legendary Louis Leakey chose her to undertake a landmark study of chimpanzees in the wild. In the Shadow of Man is an absorbing account of her early years at Gombe Stream Reserve, telling us of the remarkable discoveries she made as she got to know the chimps and they got to know her. This paperback edition, illustrated with 80 photographs, includes an introduction by Stephen Jay Gould and a postscript by Goodall. During Goodall's forty years of studying chimpanzees, she has become one of the world's most honored scientists. She tells of the later years in THROUGH A WINDOW, also available in Mariner paperback. AFRICA IN MY BLOOD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN LETTERS tells the story, through her letters, of childhood through the early years at Gombe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43859 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780618056767
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"An instant animal classic." -- Time

"An instant animal classic." -- Review

"Apart from its enormous scientific value, IN THE SHADOW OF MAN is absolutely fascinating to read as a story of discovery . . . The whole book is enthralling." -- Boston Globe

"I can't imagine a more vivid or unexpectedly moving introduction to chimpanzees in the wild than Jane Goodall's." -- George Stade -- The New York Times

"Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees represents one of the Western world's great scientific achievements." -- Stephen Jay Gould

Review

About the Author
Jane Goodall was a young secretarial school graduate when Louis Leakey sent her to Tanzania in 1960 to study chimpanzees. She later received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and has become one of the world's most honored scientists and writers. Jane Goodall's research on chimpanzees has been described by Stephen Jay Gould as "one of the Western world's great scientific achievements." Her books include the recent REASON FOR HOPE, IN THE SHADOW OF MAN, and THROUGH A WINDOW. She is the co-author with Dale Peterson of VISIONS OF CALIBAN. She resides in Tanzania.

Customer Reviews

An extraordinary account - even decades later
IN THE SHADOW OF MAN, first published in 1971, remains one of the most extraordinary observations of chimpanzee behavior in the wild. Goodall begins with the story of how she arrived in Africa and her first days there, but wisely switches the attention from herself to the endangered chimpanzees she studies. She not only recognizes individuals but learns their distinctive personalities, describing in compelling detail the smallest of moments that illuminate who these great animals are. Unlike most scientists of the time, Goodall documents emotions and complex political behavior, the social hierarchy and parenting abilities, the aggression and the bonds formed between chimps that can only be described as friendships. In eloquent prose, Goodall tells the stories of these chimps - most notably that of Flo and her family - and will forever change the way you view chimpanzees.

The book contains several black and white photographs of the chimps, a real treat after getting to "know" these chimps in writing.

If you have any interest at all in primates or in animals generally, this is a must-have book.

Super-de-duper!
Like another reviewer, I'm an anthropology student and I had to read this book for a class I'm taking. Never has a book, meant for education, made me both laugh and cry out loud. It was simply wonderful. You will learn a lot about chimpanzees, and I promiss you will never watch them in the zoo, in the same way, again. Even if you are not looking to learn about chimpanzee developement and behavior, the book is excellent on a purely entertainment level. Even though this book is was a required reading, I was so impressed that I'm going out to buy her other books... just out of interest.

Observation is the key to all the doors of knowledge
The pleasure that Ms. Goodall had placed and received in sharing her life with chimpanzees is conveyed effortlessly in this book and touches you quite easily. I started reading this book not being to sure about what I was doing, since to know about the habits of these primates is not exactly among my list of favorite topics. So I just started browsing and before I knew it, sixty or eighty pages had gone by as well as my possibilities of getting up early in the morning.

The author will guide your through the complex social structures in which chimpanzees live to the very detailed and amazing details of their everyday life. For example that they would eat gladly a human baby if given the chance. But more important she makes you care for their lives not as a consequence of a higher scientific purpose, but simply because the more that we relate to nature the more we are embraced in its blessings.