In the Shadow of Man

Learning about our closest relative teaches us so much about our own humanity and where it comes from. Wonderfully written and engaging, I couldn't put it down

Arrived on time and is an absolutely beautiful and enlightening story. Jane Goodall is a very special person.

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.

I read this book a long time ago and have looked into it many times since. It's an entertaining read that teaches us not just about chimpanzees but also about human nature and behavior. If you pay attention to this book, you'll be a better person for it!

Jane Goodall is a unique undividual whose work should be studied by those who think that the animal rights people don't have a clue. Her efforts at gaining the trust of chimpanzee's in their natural habitat have spauned a host of up-and-comers who will continue to carry her work to the next level.Goodall distinguished herself by sitting in the bush on a daily basis until the local chimpanzee tribal members came close enough to make physical contact with her. That an English woman scientist would journey to Tanzania to engage in this type of research is unusual and certainly puts her at "the top of her class". She follows the lives and behavior patterns of her subjects until her research sounds like a Michener novel with its generational emphasis and timelines of family heritage. Within this effort she follows each subsequent offspring through each of their successive cycles from birth and death. What is fascinating is how she describes personality differences, the kind that come from hard-coded genetic diffences, the same as we find in human individuals. The mating behavior sounds like something out of "Cosmopolitan". The squabbles and fighting behavior could be that of any large Homo Sapien family. While Chimp's aren't on the same intellectual level as humans they certainly come closer than any other species. Jane Goodall deserves every accolade she gets for bringing us a lens through which to observe another geneological line of a species that has developed from our common ancestors. Her work suggests that we should rethink our medical research toward more humane treatment of these animals whose behavior is too similar to ours to ignore. This is an excellent book.

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.

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.