Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man

When Louis Leakey first heard about Jane Goodall's discovery
that chimps fashion and use tools, he sent her a telegram:
"Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees
as human."

But when Goodall first presented her discoveries at a scientific
conference, she was ridiculed by the powerful chairman, who warned
one of his distinguished colleagues not to be misled by her "glamour."
She was too young, too blond, too pretty to be a serious scientist, and
worse yet, she still 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 to take the
job. And he couldn't tell her what to do once she was in the field—
nobody could—because no one before had made such an intensive
and long-term study of wild apes.

Dale Peterson shows clearly and convincingly how truly remarkable
Goodall's accomplishments were and how unlikely it is that
anyone else could have duplicated them. Peterson details not only how
Jane Goodall 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.