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Upon closing Dale Peterson's exhaustive and admiring biography Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man, the reader is left with two very different ideas. The first: Goodall is an amazing woman, scientist and humanitarian who deserves two Nobel Prizes, one for her chimpanzee research, and the other -- the Peace Prize -- for her activism in trying to change how human beings mistreat animals and the planet.
The second concept is less lofty: Some books should be released in abridged and unabridged editions. There is so much to admire in terms of Peterson's research, but many people will not finish this unusually dense 740-page book. Every trip, administrative snafu, personnel crisis and research paper published is detailed. Fulsomely.
This is sad because the woman at the book's center is so inspiring. And Peterson, who interviewed Goodall, her family and her associates, offers a perceptive and intimate portrait without adding a whiff of fawning hagiography.
Among Peterson's most interesting observations is his theory that some qualities that allowed Goodall to become a scientific pioneer came from her father, a pro race car driver. Goodall's ability to focus for hours would be crucial when she began observing the chimpanzees of Gombe on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. The research center, started in 1960, is still in operation.
Goodall also inherited his appetite for physical risk. Only someone with steel nerves would try to put into action archaeologist Louis Leakey's untested theory that a young, untrained woman -- not a male scientist -- would be more effective in observing a species so close to our own in the wild.
When she began Leakey's project, Goodall did not have a college degree. She eventually earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge. Among her discoveries: Chimps used tools, had emotions, formed families and are capable of great violence.
Goodall's research put her on the map scientifically. It was the media, particularly National Geographic magazine and its TV specials, however, that made the Englishwoman a star.
In the portrait painted by Peterson, this fame has not corrupted the chimp lady. Indeed, she appears to have few of the typical faults of the famous: selfishness, ego, narcissism. But Goodall has clearly struggled in balancing her career and her personal life.
Goodall's passion for animals was apparent from girlhood, recall her family and friends. Goodall herself credits her dog for teaching her about communication.
It seems appropriate that Goodall today, 72, now spends her time advocating for chimps in zoos and labs to be treated as living beings with emotional and physical needs.
Jane Goodall: The Woman
Who Redefined Man
By Dale Peterson
Houghton Mifflin, 740 pp., $35
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