Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes - Softcover

De Waal, Frans De

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801863368 ISBN 13: 9780801863363

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The first edition of Frans de Waal's Chimpanzee Politics was acclaimed not only by primatologists for its scientific achievement but also by a much broader audience of politicians, business leaders, and social psychologists for its remarkable insights into very basic human needs and behaviors. In this revised edition—featuring a new gallery of color photographs along with a new introduction and epilogue—de Waal expands and updates his story of the Arnhem colony and its continuing political upheavals. We learn the fate of many memorable chimpanzees and meet the colony's current leaders and their allies. The new edition remains a detailed and thoroughly engrossing account—of sexual rivalries and coalitions, of actions governed by intelligence rather than instinct—and it reaffirms the complex bond between humans and their closest living relatives. As we watch the chimpanzees of Arnhem behave in ways we recognize from Machiavelli (and from the nightly news), de Waal reminds us again that the roots of politics are older than humanity.

About this title

Review:

Even more enlightening than Machiavelli's The Prince, this book describes power takeovers and social organizations in a chimpanzee colony... I'll never look at academic or corporate politics the same way.

(Jim Collins Inc.)

The best book ever written on the social life of apes in captivity... The author has that special empathetic insight into the mind of the chimpanzee which is shared by few but can somehow be recognized by many.

(William McGrew Human Ethology Newsletter)

Schmoozing. Scheming. Consensus building. You won't glean these management techniques from any business text. But you can't run your company without them. Take it from the apes... The author demonstrates that chimps are, in the broadest sense, political.

(Laurence Shames Business Month)

Precise but eminently readable and indeed exciting... This excellent book achieves the dual goal which eludes so many writers about animal behavior—it will both fascinate the non-specialist and be seen as an important contribution to science.

(Robert Hinde Times Literary Supplement)

Review:

Fascinating to read.

(Amelie Koehler Ethology)

When I first read this book, I was in Dar es Salaam with Jane Goodall. I had just returned from observing chimpanzees for two weeks at Gombe. After the real life experience, I expected a book about chimpanzee behavior—and at a zoo, at that—to make rather dull reading. But I was in for a surprise. De Waal's Chimpanzee Politics is as much fun as a tree full of wild chimps.

(Adrienne Zihlman American Journal of Primatology)

Chimpanzee Politics continues to be the same inspirational book that it was 25 years ago, essential reading for any young primatologist, and a highly recommended re-reading for the older hands!

(Juan-Carlos Gómez Primate Eye 2008-01-00)

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0801863368
• ISBN 13: 9780801863363
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256