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| Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human | 
| Author: Elizabeth Hess
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $11.48
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New (41) from $11.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 81435
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0553803832
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.98850929
EAN: 9780553803839
ASIN: 0553803832
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Unread Book In Excellent Condition. No Creases Marks Or Tears On Dustjacket Or Book. Same Day Shipping !!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 A powerful tale of animal rights, emotions, psychology and more May 19, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The psychological question of whether or not chimpanzees can communicate, while highly important, runs a clear second to the story of the "person" of Nim Chimsky in this insightful book -- including the insight of raising the question as to whether or not that word "person" ultimately should be left in scare quotes or not.
Actually, the issue of Nim learning American Sign Language is probably the third or fourth story line in this book.
Elizabeth Hess also shows how Nim's upbringing fit squarely into an emerging animal rights movement, which itself grew out of other turmoil of the late 1960s and 1970s. In fact, Nim's whole upbringing fits there, including his beer drinking and pot toking.
Yet another storyline is how Nim served as a mirror to the different humans who interacted with him -- a mirror of their preconceptions, their emotions toward him, and more. This includes not just "laypeople," but "experts" like psychologist Herbert Terrace, who was going to try to prove Noam Chompsky wrong with Nim. (Rather, it might be best to say that primate language studies today have shown that Noam was a good launching pad for refuting naive "naturist" ideas of Skinnerians like Terrace, but that Chompsky's work has needed a lot of development.)
Yet, if Nim is a person in some way, it's not as a human being, as Hess also illustrates in yet another story line. While Nim clearly has a personality, and was early Exhibit A in refuting the idea that animals don't have emotions, he still is not a more hairy member of Homo sapiens. Nim's antics, which people like Jane Goodall showed also happened in the wild, including chimps as murderers, showed that Nim had nothing to offer to do-gooders in the way of a "greater angel" counterweight to humanness.
Heartwarming and heartbreaking story May 3, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Elizabeth Hess's "Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human" is simply put, one of the most entertaining, well-written biographies that I can recall. That its subject happens to be a precocious, temperamental, but lovable chimpanzee is quickly forgotten as I turned page after page.
"Nim Chimpsky" was born in unusual circumstances: he was plucked when he was days old to participate in a scientific study of whether chimps could acquire language. His very name was a clever rebuke to linguist Noam Chomsky, who famously declared that language was a uniquely human ability. Columbia University professor Herb Terrace put Nim in a human home, where he slept in a bed with his human "mother" Stephanie LaFarge, learned how to smoke cigarettes, and was taught American Sign Language for hours a day in a university classroom. Nim soon could not wake up without a cup of coffee and brought tissues to his human mother when she cried.
"Project Nim" started off promisingly enough, as Nim bonded quickly and easily with humans, and learned many signs. But the project soon went awry. Funding was a perpetual issue, as was finding caretakers for Nim as he got older, less pliant, and more dangerous. (Adult chimps are very powerful and easily overpower humans.) Then there was the issue that although Nim's ability to communicate with humans was unquestioned, Terrace was unconvinced that Nim actually had the skills to learn language. He noticed that Nim never was able to form sentences the "human" way. Terrace finally concluded that Nim was an accomplished mimic. At the ripe old age of 5, Nim was sent back to his "roots" in an Oklahoma chimp farm, and then sold to a biomedical laboratory before Terrace, some animal activists, as well as Nim's former caretakers protested. Nim spent his last years in a retirement farm of sorts for primates, and died unexpectedly at the age of 26.
Hess clearly has some disdain for the haphazard and unorganized way "Project Nim" was run, as well as the researchers who seemed to care more about academic one-upmanship that the well-being of Nim. Yet her book has none of the stridency and self-righteousness that would accompany an "animal rights" polemic. The book is remarkably well-written, with its characters (both human and chimp) practically leaping off the page. Hess has compassion for Nim's fate, but she doesn't demonize most of the humans in Nim's life, not even Herb Terrace. The one exception is William Lemmon, who ran the Oklahoma "chimp farm" where Nim was born and controlled his animals with a cattle prod. In 1982 he heartlessly sold his chimps to biomedical laboratories, Nim included. Some things have to be read to be believed. For instance, Lemmon apparently placed several chimps in homes and the chimps developed sexual relationships with their owners! Nim also requested joints and smoked up with his caretakers. Hess recounts all of this with a matter-of-factness and refusal to sentimentalize or preach that is refreshing.
As Nim grew older he became more difficult. He bit his handlers and destroyed property, but most people who encountered Nim had fond memories. He was charming and funny, and undeniably intelligent, language or no language skills. In other words, he's an enormously likable biographical subject, and Hess has produced a biography that does this coffee-loving chimp justice.
p.s. Almost as fascinating as the book itself are Hess's copious endnotes, which flesh out of the book with further details.
Who is human and who is inhumane? April 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the best books of any I have read for several years. It was fascinating, and couldn't put it down. The author presents the complicated study as fairly as possible. Nim was an imp, he was a master manipulator, he deserved a better fate. Perhaps his last years were not so bad. I will never think of animal research the same way again.
 Disturbing April 4, 2008
9 out of 19 found this review helpful
I ordered the book because of my interest in Nim and what happened to him, but I did not expect it to be a vicious attack on Roger Fouts, his life and his work. It is sad that the followers of Herb Terrace who are genuinely concerned with the welfare of captive chimps should feel the need to vilify Roger who has devoted his adult life to their protection.
He was finally able to provide a permanent home for Washoe and four other "signing chimps" that is a model for the treatment of captive chimps. They enjoy birthday parties and an enriched environment where they sign to eachother and to their human caretakers while non-invasive research in communication continues.
I would have hoped that this deeply moving story of Nim would awaken new interest in the plight of the captive chimpanzees without adding to the rancor that surrounds competing theories.
A bittersweet, but wonderful piece March 22, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
To keep this short and sweet, I received this book in the mail yesterday morning and finished all 300+ pages by last night. I could not put it down. It really touched my soul. I always considered myself an animal lover, but after reading this tragic story there is no doubt in my mind that animals really do have personalities, emotions and souls. Shame on people who treat them as if they were worthless and disposable. Although I found myself crying during various chapters in the book, I am so glad I read it because it really opened my eyes. It makes me want to get involved in animal rights! What a great tribute to such a wonderful soul that was Nim Chimpsky.
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