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WHILE TRAVELING AROUND THE COUNTRY to report on the conditions in which captive chimpanzees in America live, Charles Siebert visited a retirement home for former ape movie stars and circus entertainers in Wauchula, Florida, known as the Center for Great Apes. There Siebert encountered Roger, a twenty-eight-year-old former Ringling Bros. star who not only preferred the company of people to that of his fellow chimps but seemed utterly convinced that he knew the author from some other time and place.

"Mostly I was struck by Roger's stare," writes Siebert, "his deep-set hazel eyes peering out at me with what, to my deep discomfort, I'd soon realize is their unchanging expression. It is a beguiling mix of amazement and apprehension, the look, as I've often thought of it since, of a being stranded between his former self and the one we humans have long been suggesting to him. A sort of hybrid of a chimp and a person. A veritable 'humanzee.'"

Haunted by Roger's demeanor, Siebert promptly moved into a cottage on the grounds of the Center for Great Apes, spending day after day with Roger, trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious connection between them. And then late one night, awakened by the cries of chimpanzees, a sleepless and troubled Siebert suddenly began to conjure a secret, predawn encounter with his new cross-species confidant, an apparently one-sided conversation that, in fact, takes us to the very heart of the author's relationship with Roger and of our relationship with our own captive primal selves.

The result is The Wauchula Woods Accord, a strikingly written, wide-ranging physical and metaphysical foray out along the increasingly fraught frontier between humans and animals; a journey that encompasses many of the author's encounters with chimpanzees and other animals, as well as the latest scientific discoveries that underscore our intimate biological bonds not only with our nearest kin but with far more remoteseeming life-forms.

By journey's end, the reader arrives at a deeper understanding both of Roger and of our numerous other animal selves, a recognition -- an accord -- that carries a new sense of responsibility for how we view and treat all animals, including ourselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

An anecdotal conceit
What I liked:

Mr. Siebert created a complex structure to tell his story, sort of like the Russian nested figurines. Throughout, we are with Mr. Siebert and Roger (the chimp) for a minute-by-minute meeting. But during that time, Mr. Siebert casts back to a past story that tells how he arrived at this meeting. And while telling that past story, he also casts back to a different past story. Mr. Siebert maintains this structure beautifully, never toppling a board.

Mr. Siebert also introduced me to a fascinating history in which animals have been put on trial for their actions.

Ditto for his stories on the dysfunctional 'culture' of elephants, and the parallels with a lost generation of people in Uganda. Fascinating stuff.

What I didn't like:

With the above exceptions - most of the book's content.

Although Mr. Siebert talks about many studies, he does not include references. Although Mr. Siebert quotes individuals who think similarly to himself, he offers no alternative conclusions arrived at by other researchers. And some of the conclusions cry out for at least a sentence or two of contrary opinions.

I found the overwrought exploration of Mr. Siebert's "connection" with Roger wearing. I wish he'd have just pulled in a medium to discover how they knew each other in past lives, and be done with it.

Mr. Siebert was given to some grandiose statements that didn't make much sense, like stating animals had no chance for survival without humankind. None. Well, how about if all humankind were gone, wouldn't they bounce back then?

Or the conclusion that humans are the most entrapped of all animals. OK, this sounds all adolescently earnest, but.

Or the curious, human-centric observation that elephants only caressed, cared for human bones as much as their own elephant bones. OK, I've got to go look *that* up.

I found myself reading the entire book so I could learn what exactly the proposed Wauchula Woods Accord was. And when I did see it, I thought, oh, OK, I guess that sounds pretty good. Unfortunately, I can't remember it now, only 24 hours later.

Compelling and heart breaking....
I could not put this book down and cried at times while reading this book. The story is so compelling and I have for years believed that our use of primates for medical research, consumer products research, entertainment purposes or as pets is wrong. Mr. Siebert's book is written so well, that anyone on the fence in this issue will by the end of this book, choose to support the welfare of these animals.

Mr. Siebert has written an incredible account of his personal and deeply moving encounter with a chimpanzee named Roger who is caged humanely in a retirement compound in Florida. He also writes of his travels around the country to discover where other primates are housed either in retirement, still being bred, or (unbelievably) even rented out for birthday parties! These stories are also heart breaking and at times will make you angry that there are people in the US who are using these amazing animals for such frivolousness, thoughtlessness and cruelty.

This book is moving and it pushes the reader to question why humans are allowed to own these precious animals and exposes the dark side of primate ownership in our country. It must take a very sick mind for someone who in my opinion, wants to "own" one of these amazing animals with the intent of making them work for them so they can make money off of them doing tricks or as pets.

I also don't understand how scientist can perform experiments on them which are so horrific and cruel. Luckily, there are hero's in this book who ride to the rescue of many of these primates and provide wonderful places for them to live once these humans are done with them. Their stories and what they are accomplishing for these primates go a long way to make up for the former harsh treatment of these innocent animals. I for one was not surprised to find out that they are both women. These two amazing women, have established sanctuaries for primates in Florida and dedicated their lives to those primates who, if not for them would not have anywhere to go when discarded by their owners. One of the residents is Michael Jackson's chimpanzee Bubbles.

There are other animal captivity stories alongside of the primates (story) in this book. Mr. Siebert traveled all over the US and to Africa as well. He is a beautiful writer and this book will stay with you and may even haunt you, long after you finish reading it.

Animals Are People Too
I don't know if Charles Siebert's long meditation on animal intelligence amounts to "a new understanding of animals" but it certainly casts light on our shameful exploitation of them.

Written as a series of mental journeys, each excursion starts and ends during one long night in Wauchula FL where the author sat outside the cage of Roger, a chimpanzee raised in the company of people and now living in the Center for Great Apes.The author ponders what might be going through poor Roger's brain (equivalent to a 5-year old human's), as Siebert embarks on stories of his own researches into elephant culture (and its destruction caused by poaching the eldest members of so many herds), the effects of deforestation in Peru, threatened jaguars in Belize and rhinos in Nepal, visits to various chimp retirement homes around the country both good and bad, the bizarre history of humans holding "trials" to convict dangerous or destructive animals, the cruel legacy of zoos and traveling circuses, medical experimentation, and ape language experiments.

There is a lot of deeply philosophical speculation about what it means to be human, and some fairly hilarious fun-poking at Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort for their ignorant "The Way of the Master" biblical literalism.The pacing of the book is leisurely, as befits a meditation; but the author manages to put across quite a bit of information in a thoughtful, one might even say humane manner.The reader comes away sobered but sensitized.

Another book which covers some of the same ground is Eugene Linden's heartbreaking Silent Partners: The Legacy of the Ape Language Experiments (1986).

@#$%^&* Writers!

Ignore the #of stars I entered.My browser's screwed up, and I can't see what I'm checking.

I catalog books for a library.I started to read this, because I was hoping to find out something about chimpanzees.I gave up almost right away because, for me,the writer kept getting in the way.

This isn't fair.This is more about me, really.But, I just kept getting the impression that the writer needed to be a writer, to create a book, to put enough writerly material in it to qualify as a book.So, I was reading a lot of stuff that I didn't care about.A lot of stuff that felt so self-consciously DEEP and THOUGHTFUL, along with details that felt like filler, to me. It was more about the @#$%^& writer's need to be a writer than about a new understanding of animals.

I gave up.

Amazing
What a writer. I've read a lot of books about exotic animals throughout The Medici Giraffe and this is the most thoughtful, well-written and interesting. It has a narrative for a change, which is nice. It's a book about our relationship with animals and our growing understanding of their psychology and personalities, told through the events of a night the author spent with a chimp in the woods of Florida. Why, he asks, are we so drawn to portraying certain species as the opposite of what they are - chimps as comical man-children, elephants as kindly old women? How is this any different than the Roman's absurd caricatures of sex hungry apes or their belief that elephants could live to be 300 years old? A wonderful example artistic mastery, I loved this book because the author says so much in so few pages, without footnotes or research papers or lecturing. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (13)

Inspiring and absolutely absorbing
Despite looong work hours, I simply had to pick up this book each evening.In my experience, few people you encounter, whether in real life or books, make you want to better yourself and care a little bit more!Jane Goodall is such a person, and Dale Peterson has crafted an honest and compelling account of this wonderful advocate of chimps and all living things!

A great book about a great woman
Dale Peterson has written a great book about a great woman. The book is long, I admit, but interesting from page to page. The book clearly reflects how Jane Goodall has first ventured into Africa, made friends with the chimpanzees, and then developed an accurate sense of humanity. I had read this book after reading Jane Goodall's REASON FOR HOPE, and Dale Peterson describes her life almost like she herself describes it in her book. An example: Jane Goodall had a very happy marriage with her second husband, Derek, and was badly hurt by his long illness and death. As I stated in a review of REASON FOR HOPE, Jane Goodall is an excellent humanist and merits the Nobel Peace Prize.

Re-writing the book
Louis Leakey put it best.Jane Goodall's work in Gombe prompted a complete revision in how humans view themselves.The subtitle could well stand as the lead for this book.In this exquisitely detailed biography, Dale Peterson depicts how Jane's personality led to a number of fresh insights about how the other animals live and how science learned new ways to study them.Coming out of a rather obscure and unpromising life, Jane Goodall rose to prominence by unusal methods.She applied a sense of caring, developed through attention to her many pets, to the study of chimpanzees.Lacking any preconceptions about what chimpanzees were "supposed" to do, she was able to learn what they actually did do.To say her approach disturbed many "establishment" researchers is putting it mildly.However, her other major attribute in support of her caring, is persistence.

There's a wonderful irony in the circumstances of Jane's becoming a foremost field primatologist.In an era when women reject being "objectified", it was Louis Leakey's roving eye and philandering habits that propelled Jane into the African bush.Having found evidence of early humans at Olduvai, he wanted some signs of evolutionary links. Chimpanzees, as Darwin had noted a century before, were the most likely indicator.Peterson points out that science was woefully lacking in data on apes.They're elusive and shy.It was Jane Goodall who demonstrated the value of "habituation" - long, enduring and subtle contact with her subjects - that allowed her to see what nobody else had before.Chimpanzees use tools, and they're effective hunters.It was the latter trait, the author notes, that helped Jane and her associates to begin formulating the structure of how chimpanzee society is formed.

Those findings led Jane Goodall to both challenge old, staid thinking about field research and chimpanzee life in particular.More, they resulted in Jane's methods and reports led her to become a major figure in science.Whatever Leakey's carnal ambitions toward Jane, he saw her worth.He propelled her through Cambridge's graduate programme almost by brute force as Peterson describes well.Yet, even that endorsement didn't make up for the work Jane had to produce to earn her degree.By that time, she was writing for National Geographic, producing journal papers and books.Oh, yes.She also got married and had a baby.

The richness of detail may deter a few readers of this book.It shouldn't.Jane Goodall, her diminutive stature and uncomplicated expression belie a powerful individual.Peterson isn't simply filling pages, he's building a picture of that individual.That image cannot be imparted with a few strokes of a broad brush.Jane Goodall, under the author's careful touch, isn't a flashy genius, but a dedicated hard worker who built up her own methods one bit at a time.The edifice is indeed imposing as the work led her on speaking tours, teaching assignments, and negotiations for funding, all while raising her family and running a research programme.It's not a simple life Peterson is relating and its complexity cannot be conveyed in a few words.Goodall is an imposing figure in science and the many details are but a start in doing her justice.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Jane Goodall Merits The Nobel Peace Prize !
This comprehensive and compelling biography of Jane Goodall is truly inspiring. For decades Jane Goodall has valiantly and tirelessly traveled the planet imploring the world community to have reverence for the lives of humans and the animal kingdom. She is arguably the foremost advocate on behalf of primates and other endangered species. Her whole life has been dedicated to espousing universal peace and the kinship of all life. The brilliant and compassionate Jane Goodall merits a Nobel Peace Prize. Now !

A bit long, but oh, what a ride....
I do agree with another reviewer that Jane Goodall, The Woman who redefined Man is a wee bit longish.Okay, at 714 pages plus an index it is a long read.However, I disagree that the attention spent on her early life is the culprit.Nothing could be further from the truth.Peterson lavishes many pages to Goodall's upbringing; her strong and directing mother and her danger loving race car father, her love of competition and her love of detail are overly mundane I feel that they tell us a lot about the person that Goodall eventually becomes.What other person, woman or man in 1960 was willing to chuch everything to study monkeys?

Peterson obviously loves his subject.As a teenager I remember hearing stories about this young and attractive woman who had devoted her life to studying primate behavior.I didn't realize until much later that she had been sent by Leakey.I certainly didn't know until reading this book that Goodall had been trained as a secretary.How the fates have a way of stepping in and changing things....a truth that is delivered to any reader of this book.

Jane Goodall has contributed a huge body of information to the world by her devoted work and study.Reading Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man will impress you and awe you.A truly great read. ... Read more

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The maxim of the three wise monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil too often describes matters of American justice; though in new author Andrew Quinn's debut novel, Waterfall Dance, one very special primate is poised to show and tell all. Renowned English primatologist Emily Bennett has taught sign language to generations of chimpanzees, but only recently has the project, Simian Says, adopted sign language recognition and speech synthesis technology designed for communication-impaired humans. Voice changes everything, so when Emily is arrested for her involvement in rescuing three experimental chimps from a Seattle lab, her prize pupil is thrust into the spotlight. Emily's lawyer, ambivalent pretty boy Will Thomas, can't help but fall for his primate-passionate client, which will either help the case or interfere with her scheme. In the twenty-first century's most sensational trial comes the most anticipated witness in courtroom history.

Time is running out on our closest relative in evolution. To turn the tide, Will Thomas must change what it means to be human.
The woman gave him clarity. The trial taught him courage. But it is an animal that must teach aimless Will Thomas what it means to be human.

The prospect of meaningful communication with a great ape is just around the corner—not the ambiguous translation of body language and gestures, but plain English, interpreted as American Sign Language and synthesized into voice. Much of the technology required is already here. The rest will soon arrive. What will they say? What would you ask? What does it change?

Waterfall Dance is an intricate balance of politics, romance, science, and courtroom drama. A deeply enjoyable read which gently unveils the main character's humanity.
Steven Nyquist
... Read more

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Discusses the use of chimpanzees in laboratory experiments and describes the inhumane conditions in which they are kept, the often cruel treatment they receive and what happens to them when they are no longer needed. Also discusses recent legislation designed to minimize the suffering of these animals and alternatives to using live animals in scientific experiments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

ONE OF THE MAJOR "APE LANGUAGE" RESEARCHERS REACHES PESSIMISTIC CONCLUSIONS
David Premack (born 1925) is currently emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and wife Ann was a science writer (e.g., Why Chimps Can Read).

The authors state in the Introduction to this 1983 book, "Our own attempt to teach language to an ape was not based on the belief that a chimpanzee could be turned into a child. We were interested in the human mind. In order to understand the mind of the human, it was essential, we thought, to compare it with other minds. But were there other minds that were comparable?... We began, then, to teach a simple, written language, one we invented, to a creature that in the ordinary course of its natural life does not acquire a language..."

"Chimpanzees, we now know, are not initiators of language; they will, however, engage in dialogue once drawn into an exchange. It was this ability, through the system of language that Sarah learned, that gave us an invaluable tool for investigating a far more important issue, the mind of an ape." (pg. 34)

They admit, "contrary to popular belief, though we may give the chimpanzee a human hand in place of its own, it will not draw representational pictures--not any more than the chimpanzee will, if given a human larynx, produce even the most childish conversation." (pg. 108) Also, "Children have these concepts, but they do not apply them in all cases. With the chimpanzees it is not yet clear whether they even have the abstract concepts, let alone can use them consistently." (pg. 113)

Their conclusions are surprisingly pessimistic: "After all, even the most avid proponents for language in the ape never supposed that the ape would be capable of adult grammar. But, the evidence we have makes it clear that even the brightest ape can acquire not even so much as the weak grammatical system exhibited by very young children." (Pg. 115) They conclude the chapter "Who Has Language?" with the statement, "While we have shown certain capacities for language that apes share with us, we have also emphasized the limitations found in the representational system of apes. The sentence is the most abstract representation of which humans are capable and, as such, is far beyond the capacity of the chimpanzee." (pg. 123)

The book ends on the note, "Adding a human larynx to the ape would not make of it a human, nor would subtracting language from the human make of it an ape. Over vast periods of time, genetic changes transformed a creature with a mere potential for abstract representation into the present human. It is not language alone that separates the human mind from that of the chimpanzee." (pg. 151)

YOU NEVER THOUGHT IT COULD BE!
As me, Im guessing that you had not thought that Chimpanzees could do so much with their brains! However in this great book you'll find a hole lot of clever experiments that will teach you how much alike we are. If you doresearch it will show you that most of the times, in the area of cognitionthe details are the most important thing. In it, chimpanzees work withsymbols in very different ways,and deal quite well with general andparticular operations concerned with language. Step by step, one afteranother approved test, they will show you the ways through the Mind of anApe! ... Read more

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Introduction by Dr. Jane Goodall. On the occasion of Dr. Jane Goodall's fortieth anniversary of groundbreaking research with the chimpanzees of Gombe, the Jane Goodall Institute has joined Stewart, Tabori & Chang in paying homage to the woman hailed by the Christian Science Monitor as "a heroine, in a hero-less time."

In the words of Stephen Jay Gould, "Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees represents one of the western world's greatest scientific achievements." Set on her path by famed anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey, who believed in her patience and persistent desire to understand animals, Goodall established the Gombe Stream Research Centre. There, her profound scientific discoveries-including the observation of chimpanzees making and using tools-laid the foundation for all future primate studies.

Filled with photographs from the Institute's archives-many never-before published-along with the work of some of the world's top photographers, this beautifully illustrated volume traces the story of Dr. Goodall's work from its singular beginning to the Institute's present-day international activities. It is sure to appeal to Dr. Goodall's millions of admirers the world over, and to serve as a source of inspiration to many more.

Dr. Jane Goodall is one of the world's most recognized scientists, the recipient of numerous awards, the subject of many documentary films, and the author of more than ten books for children and adults, including the best-selling In the Shadow of Man (1971).Amazon.com Review
Jane Goodall is the most famous primatologist, possibly themost famous field biologist, of the 20th century. Her chimpanzeeresearch did more to increase human knowledge of the lives of ourclosest relatives than that of any other scientist. It's in large partdue to her example that primatology is the closest thing to afemale-dominated science.

But in 1986 Goodall gave up fieldwork fora higher, more pressing calling: rescuing chimpanzees from inhumaneconditions in captivity and preserving the species fromextinction. Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe is a pictorialtribute to her life, her studies of the chimpanzees, and herunflagging efforts to motivate human beings on their behalf.

"Everyindividual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Everyindividual makes a difference." Goodall began her research by givingthe chimpanzees names, by observing them as nonhuman individuals. Heractivism is directed toward the human individuals: scientists who useapes in research, Africans who live near wild apes, children in Africaand in the industrialized world who can learn to value other creaturesfor themselves. Goodall says of this last project that "I think Roots& Shoots is probably the reason I came into the world. Yet I couldn'thave done it without all those years with the chimpanzees and anunderstanding that led to a blurring of the line between 'man' and'beasts.'" --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Outstanding Book
I bought this for my daughter, Beth.It is an outstanding book.Incredible photos and very well done.Like all of Jane Goodall's books, this is a keeper.

John Jensen

Excellent tribute to Goodall's life and work
_____I bought this book for my girlfriend, who is a huge fan of Jane Goodall.But I find myself picking it up and reading through it a lot.This book is an excellent read, for the casual animal lover as well as those with a deep interest in primatology.

_____The book covers much of Jane Goodall's life, including biographical info, historical research milestones, and even those special moments that make Goodall the concerned activist she is.It has well-written text and beautiful, high-quality photos.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Jane Goodall, especially those who do not know much about her and would like a starter reference book.

A Worthy Devotion to an amazing Woman!
At 14, I admire and sulute Ms. Goodall!Her work and devotion to some the most fascinating of animals is absolutely stunning!I think that over her 40 wonderful at Gombe, she has developed a beautiful relationship with these animals, and you can definetely see and feel their love with thisbook!Everyone who has ever read her dazzling books or has any knowledgeor admiration for Jane's hard and unmistakably hard work will enjoy thistimeline of a stunning woman's life in Africa!Enjoy! ... Read more

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Including contributions by Jane Goodall, Dr. George B. Schaller, and Mary Smith, the compelling story of gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and bonobos--the newest "great ape"--is presented alongside award-winning photographs by "Nick" Nichols in a brand-new National Geographic Society release. ... Read more

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A place of both light and darkness
This book of infinite character and magnificent amaizements is a one in a life-time. It is a passionate book keeping your immense interest and curiosity from the first to the last page. It describes the life of theApes in their wonderful habitat as well as their surroundings with theconstant threat from humans. With beautifully well done pictures, this bookjourneys you to a different world. ... Read more

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Apes look and act far more like humans than other animals. Apes are super apes, just as apes are super monkeys. Portraits of the apes provide some glimpses into our closest cousins. [Shows in full color on Kindle apps for color screens.]

EXCERPT:
"It reminds me of what my colleague Gordon Orians said about views that make people feel good. As a behavioral ecologist, he speaks figuratively of the Ghost of Dangers Past (we dream of spiders and snakes, not current dangers such as cars and handguns). He says our human aesthetic sensibilities are similarly influenced by the Ghost of Habitats Past. Habitat selection by an animal is influenced by where it grew up, by where it sees others of its own species, and – especially when those criteria aren’t working very well – by some innate knowledge of what the species’ former habitats looked like…. A high-ranked vista for humans generally includes some water (stream, pond, seashore). A forest view isn’t as good as one with some scattered trees (not too tall, either; trees that spread out in horizontal layers like acacias get higher viewer ratings). A few large animals in the distance (but not too close for comfort) is an attractive option. And, for best effect, the scene should be viewed from a slight elevation, preferably framed in a way that suggests viewing from some shelter.
In short, I would conclude, it’s the view from a tree nest in our ancestral savanna home. Such gut feelings tell us something about our ancestors – indeed about what they liked to put in their guts. Such innate likings would have guided individuals in selecting a habitat suited to the better ways of making a living for their species, back then – telling them when to settle down, when to move on to “a better view.”
Oriental landscape architecture adheres to this savanna-tree-house formula, what with that little shelter on the artificial hill from which to survey the ponds and scattered trees. It’s species specific to us humans – a chimp or bonobo would have a different esthetic, likely featuring more of an inside-the-forest view of fruit trees. They might find our open spaces threatening.
I’ll be in the Rift Valley soon, so let me save tree-house esthetics until then. Maybe this belongs on the hominid bootstrap list, if we can ever figure out chimp esthetics as a basis for comparison." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Liberal trash
I've been reading "Understanding Human History" by Michael Hart which is in the same genre, when my daughter gave me "A Brain For All Seasons" to check out. William Calvin's book is sloppy, repetitive, heavily biased and patronizing. For example, when discussing the r-K continuum among human groups he talks down to us stupid people (anybody who would read this and think it was good must fit into this category) by explaining that a genetically controlled trait might be a "package deal" like getting leather seats and power windows together in a car. Look clown, you don't have to talk down to your audience unless you are writing your book for a bunch or morons (he was).
In another case he says that IQ does not have anything to do with intelligence (predicts whether you'll succeed in college, life, etc though!) and brain size differ between Asians and Blacks by more than 2 percent, and that wouldn't make much difference. Huh? 1370 (average Asian brain size) - 1270 cc (average black brain size)/1270 equals 7.9% on my calculator. Obviously he isn't the genius he thinks he is.
In another passage he says the Chinese failed to continue their seafaring expeditions (and go on to "discover" Europe) due to politics. This is true. He then goes on to put it into context, "you would have to imagine an ultraconservative takeover of the US that, for some reason, frowned on both airplanes and computers". Really? In the 1970's the "Progressives" told us we had to stop going to the Moon, put off going to Mars and stop launching money into space to spend it on the people on the earth. Seems like Mr. Calvin has it backwards. Besides, no one could call the Chinese conservative, they ALWAYS vote Democrat in the US. It's probably their progressive dictatorial proclivities that brought those westbound ships home, not the profit seeking conservative traits that the Europeans had when they sought gold and spice, tea and slaves when they conquered the entire world.
From there he goes on to tell us that hot means cold, warming means cooling, big brains helped evolution but didn't help Europeans and Chinese invent more stuff than Africans. What a clown.
People interested in science and real evolution cause and effect would be better off with Understanding Human History by Michael Hart. This guy is just a mouthpiece for bad math, bad science, and more government control of our economy.

A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change
The book is in fact a collected of notes and thoughts about various aspects of human evolution and its "actors". It is written rather to give some ideas for individual thinking than a comprehensive study of the subject introduced by the title. Unfortunately the book contains some mistakes (e.g. Homo sp. in Europe is not older than 1.0 Ma and absolutely not 1.7 Ma as stated on the page 39).
Nevertheless it could make a good reading for students and non-specialists interested in the subject. Remember, do not read this book without any additional source reading.

disjointed? Hard for me to get through
I purchased this book on a friend's recommendation as an accessible, easy-to-read book (we both really enjoyed "Guns Germs and Steel"). However, I had a hard time following this author in his discussions as he travels. I wasn't sure of the point he was trying to make in the chapters. I applaud the author for attempting to describe his theory at a laymen's level, but I'm not sure he was successful.

A Fascinating Account of How Abrupt Climate Changes might Have Affected Human Evolution
Human evolution is one of the great detective stories of the twenty-first century. How did this species, Homo sapien sapiens, come to be? Our written record provides some details for only about the last 10,000 years, but what about the millions of years on Earth beforehand? Charles Darwin's rock-solid theory of natural selection, while attacked from the political and religious right as unable to explain the "miracle" of life in the universe without reference to God's creation, remains at the center of all explanations that take a scientific perspective on the subject. William H. Calvin, on the faculty at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, offers in "A Brain for All Seasons" a modification of Darwin's theory that is both illuminating and reasoned. He argues that while Darwin thought in terms of eons of time and slow progression across thousands of generations, some evolutionary processes might be more immediate and striking.

Specifically, Calvin asserts that the capacity and complexity of the human brain grew significantly in response to cataclysm on the Earth. Cycles of radical and abrupt climate change, warm-and-wet versus cold-and-dry, help to explain the current state of human evolution. Ancient humans were driven to adapt within a few generations to abrupt climate change, a set of cycles between ice ages and warm seasons, forcing biological as well as other changes on those who survived (and probably few did). These "whiplash" climate shifts, as Calvin calls them, meant that those most adaptable survived and others did not. One major aspect of adaptability is brain power and reasoning. While not exclusive to Calvin, other scientists have made this case effectively, "A Brain for All Seasons" offers a reasoned, accessible explanation of how humanity came to be as it is today. It also offers a cautionary note about the potential for future abrupt climate change and what it might portend for the future of humanity. Wars over land and resources appear almost a certainty, he contends. Widespread starvation and death will also result. And again, those with the most adaptability will survive.

William Calvin's analysis is erudite and thought-provoking. It is also highly entertaining. Written as a travelogue that stretches across the globe, especially Africa and the Arctic, "A Brain for All Seasons" serves as an entrée for a lay audience into the world of paleobiology. Calvin does a good job of speaking to that broad audience, but as is the case with most books that seek to communicate scientific knowledge to non-scientists this one sometimes oversimplifies and overstates the evidence. It should be read, as should all books, with a critical mind, something that I'm sure William Calvin would appreciate. Taken altogether, however, it is a useful starting point in understanding how humans evolved from the distant past.

Challenging but well worth reading
This is not an easy book to read. Calvin aims high, setting out to present a coherent new model of how repeated, abrupt climate changes may have driven the evolution of the human brain. Since science has only known about Earth's history of climatic instability for a few years and many details remain to be filled in, Calvin has taken on a major challenge. As if that were not enough, in the second half of _A Brain for All Seasons_, he presents the latest ideas about the mechanisms that may have shifted the global climate from extreme to extreme in the past and may do so in the future, and presents an insightful analysis of the risks involved in our present denial-driven do-nothing approach toward climate change.

Unfortunately, a lot of the book reads as though Calvin were thinking out loud. He tends to follow his chain of thought wherever it leads at the time, which I found quite frustrating early on. However, he eventually weaves together the many strands he's mulling over, often in an original and thought-provoking way.

If you come away from the book with a clear understanding of his two main ideas, (1) that repeating cycles of large, abrupt climate shifts have taken place over the course of human evolution and provide a convincing ratcheting mechanism for increased brain size and complexity, and (2) that we urgently need to move past the now headshakingly stupid debate about whether or not human-induced climate change is real to a pragmatic analysis of the risks looming ahead and our options for dealing with them, it's well worth a bit of frustration at his style. In the end, I found the book more than worth the effort.

Robert Adler
Author of _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation_, (John Wiley& Sons, 2002)
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Product Description

For the first time, the granddaddy of all Hollywood animals tells his remarkable story, from the golden age of the silver screen to the lounge chairs of palm springs. Cheeta the Chimp, star of the Tarzan films, bares all—as only a primate can.

Customer Reviews (13)

Too Clever by Half
Spoof is an art-form of the highly intelligent; it is a refined genre, requiring familiarity with the subject and love of the material. "Me Cheeta" is the perfect embodiment of the spoof, a near-classic take-off on celebrity autobiographies, Hollywood-style. It was brilliant of the author to come up with his subject, a grand entrance into the dark hollywood jungle. The book is written and executed with flair, but I thought it a a great bore. For one thing, Hollywood is dead. The glamorous world of David Niven and Lassie is as far in the past as Weimar, Germany. One can read the odd autobiography of a favorite star, but as much as one was once amused by Cheeta, his inner life is not of great interest. It is brilliantly conceived, don't get me wrong. It's wicked humor reminded me of "The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh. Still, the world through the eyes of a horny, foul-mouthed chimp just doesn't carry the weight imagined by the author. Although meant to be lurid, I imagine, the enterprise comes over as oddly silly. This might, of course, have been the author's real intention.

Hollywood laid hairy
This is a brilliant parody of a Hollywood memoir. Some critics (Ha! Critics, what do they know?) have complained that it is done by a ghost writer after only half an hour of face time with the star and a few afternoons of googling. So what? So normal Hollywood memoirs are different? Get real. This has the real gamey flavour of authentic chimpanzee.

Cheeta the chimpanzee (or Cheater, or Jiggs as also known) was a star in the golden age of Tarzan, and hung out with everyone that mattered, Sure, we've forgotten most of them, but they're still on daytime TV, and at Christmas. OK, Cheeta did not know the real alpha males, the studio bosses who controlled the stars, but he was privy to some entertaining stuff and some real stars whose name I've forgotten. Maybe he drank a bit, maybe he smoked a bit, maybe he bit a bit (I particularly liked the story about how he bit the ass of the adulterous wife of his star-hero and blamed it on the dog) but hey... that's Hollywood.

The critics should lighten up, and light up a stogie for Cheets (now in his record-breaking 78th year and dying for a smoke). And just because the ghost is a Brit (and he can get some grammatical French in: "Le tout Hollywood was..." Ya what?) some critics have suggested it's not true. Well, it's been checked by the lawyers, and the absence of chapter 8 proves... well nothing much. But cheer up, after this memoir, which dishes the dirt in bucket loads (and that's the selling point, isn't it?) who needs another celebrity autobiography ever again?

I look forward to the author's new projects on... what Checkers thought of being dragged into a TV studio (all that panting under the lights, all those ice cubes) what the asp thought about Cleopatra ("I was going for her nose, not her tits, I swear") and a guide to Crete by the Minotaur.

GREAT CHIMP'S VIEW OF INSIDE HOLLYWOOD!
I was (honest to God born in a movie studio) and thought I had an insider view of Tinsel Town growing up.Boy, did I learn shocking new things from Cheeta's experiences away from the camera!Had he had time during Hollywood's hey days he could have been another Hedda or Louella (but, of course, censorship existed in those ancient days) and he wouldn't have been able to tell us what Clark did to.....oopps, there are other sites which could better describe the kind of activity Cheeta was exposed to.

This mad monkey's adventures will have you laughing, churn up your nostalgia factor to a straspheric level and you'll want to immediately add the early Tarzan films on your Netflix list (which I did - and they were really damned good flicks - not Saturday matinee fodder).

Yes, Cheeta reveals his true feelings about Jane (and they rhyme with the word itch) and asks the questions, "Am I not Tarzan's real son - not that snotty little Johnny Shefield?"

This funny little book will please anybody who always wanted Cheeta as their personal pet (he could have been an X-Rated one on occasion when your Aunt Ida was visiting). Great for movie buffs or National Inquirer readers who wants the low down on the real monkey business that went on in Hollywood way back then.

What DID happen with Dolores del Rio?
Hmm, what to make of this memoir "written" by Cheeta the chimpanzee, sidekick to Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan movies and purportedly the world's oldest chimp? (The real author is British writer James Lever.) Well, it's a spoof, of course, a profane, funny send-up of those tell-all biographies and autobiographies of thirties Hollywood stars. And the stars are all in "Me, Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood"; most of what Cheeta has to say about each of them is delectably wicked. On a more serious note, Cheeta's love for his co-star Weissmuller, the handsome, much-married Olympic swimmer, is a kind of meditation on the relationship between humans and the intelligent animals that serve them---and abandon them, often enough. Cheeta's voice, as you read along, has a kind of Doctor Doolittle effect; it seems he IS talking to you. Occasionally I'd glance over at my Labrador retriever and wonder what HE was thinking about ME.

Okay, okay, I admit that the effect of this novel is a bit strange. It's too long by a third, too, and I found that I couldn't read more than thirty pages at a time before I had to take a break. The voice of a nicotine-addicted, tequila (and etc.)-swilling chimpanzee can only be taken in small doses, like reading "People" magazine in the dentist's waiting room. Oh, and the whole premise of the novel--that Cheeta arrived here from Africa in the thirties, starred in all the Tarzan films, and now lives in Palm Springs, retired and having exceeded the usual chimpanzee lifespan by 25 years--is evidently completely bogus. (See the writer R.D. Rosen in "The Washington Post" on this.) It doesn't matter.Enjoy Cheeta's gossip and his perspective on the "omnicidal" humans he adores, when he's not revealing all their secrets. It all got him onto the 2009 Man Booker long list.

Immensely Entertaining Satire on Hollywood
I have no interest in chimps nor a particular love of Tarzan, but I am a fan of vintage Hollywood and picked this up on a friend's recommendation.It's the first book I've read in ages that made me laugh out loud.Those looking for a 'true' biography of this animal will be disappointed, but the average reader will be overjoyed by the creative license taken by the author. He has turned Cheetah into an outrageously behaved, sardonic and outspoken Hollywood 'actor' with some serious personal issues.The writer has a truly unique turn of phrase. I've done a bit of digging and found out the author is named novelist James Lever, who himself was parodied in a novel last year 'Choking on Marlon Brando' by his then girlfriend author Antonia Quirke.I followed up on this book (also a funny read) and it seems there's a lot of similarity between the man and chimp.... ... Read more

Product Description
Meet Lucy. She's a bonobo and she's a lot like you! In this story, you'll learn about Lucy and her family and see amazing photographs that will make you laugh out loud. What is a bonobo? Bonobos are our closest great ape relatives who live in a uniquely peaceful and matriarchal society. Tragically, scientists predict bonobo extinction within 10 years unless humans protect them and their habitat, the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa. People can help though! All profits from I'm Lucy go to the Bonobo Conservation Initiative and the Roots and Shoots program - organizations working to save the bonobos and the Earth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

My Daughter Enjoys It; I Find It To Be Poorly Written
I had high hopes for this book. The story of a young bonobo seemed a perfect complement to my daughter's interest in apes and monkeys. And the pictures are nice, though I wouldn't call them great. I hadn't expected that pictures from a zoo would just seem sort of... depressing. And they do.

The one thing that I'd really hoped for this book is that it would be told in an informative way, not in one of those cheesed-up ways where, for lack of anything better to say, a false emotion or thought attributed to the animal is inserted in a 'clever' way. 'This is my brother Kaleb. He has big ears and looks funny,' the main baby bonobo, Lucy, might be credited with saying. And I imagine this is because the story is told about bonobos who live in the zoo rather than in the wild, and because of their confinement, don't do a lot that is noteworthy. So the author felt compelled to kind of have to make up a 'story' to go with it to make it seem like there's action when there isn't.

The story also doesn't mesh together well. It feels choppy, disorganized, like it was a struggle to come up with the words.

Had the story been depicted differently, I think I would have liked this book well enough, maybe 4 stars worth. As it is, I find it a little difficult to read and find myself wanting to change the words around, so that they'll be less grating and fake.

It's not the animals fault they've been so ridiculously depicted. Apes so often are depicted this way, and I think that's why I never was fond of them. Hopefully, my daughter will continue to feel differently. Right now she seems to identify so strongly with them, and I really want to encourage her interest. I had hoped this book would be a tool in that venture. However I think we will just be using it as a picture book sans words to make it palatable to the adult components of our household.

Splendid Children's Book
This book is written with beautiful and simple language that both children and adults can enjoy and learn from the story of Lucy.A perfect gift for birthday's, holidays or just to keep on the shelf for little one's when they come to visit.It is our daughter's favorite bedtime story. ... Read more