Love at Goon Park

Starred review from October 7, 2002
In this surprisingly compelling book, Blum (The Monkey Wars) reveals that many of the child-rearing truths we now take for granted—infants need parental attention; physical contact is related to emotional growth and cognitive development—were shunned by the psychological community of the 1950s. As Blum shows, Freudian and behavioral psychologists argued for decades that babies were drawn to their mothers only as a source of milk, motivated by the instinctual drive for sustenance, and that children could be harmed by too much affection. Harry Harlow's experiments, Blum finds in this deeply sympathetic investigation of his life and work, changed all this, conclusively demonstrating that infant monkeys bond emotionally with a specific "mother"—a dummy figure made of cloth—even if it is not a source of food. The experiments also revealed, astonishingly enough, that puzzle-solving monkeys who were not rewarded with food actually performed better than those who were rewarded, leading him to conclude that baby primates—and by extension, baby children—are motivated by a range of emotions, including curiosity, affection and wonder. Born Harry Israel, Harlow changed his name because 1930s anti-Semitism prevented him from getting a research position (though he wasn't Jewish). His first marriage ended because his wife, who had given up her own promising scientific career, felt he was spending too much time at the lab and not enough at home with the kids. Monkey Wars
fans who have been waiting for a follow-up will find this book irresistible. (Nov.)Forecasts:With war on everyone's mind, a book that dwells carefully and passionately on the need for affection may make for a sleeper hit.
The Monkey Wars was critically acclaimed; look for this lower profile title to be well reviewed on the strength of the earlier book, and for similar enthusiasm to result.

Starred review from November 1, 2002
Not too long ago, the predominant paradigm maintained that infants should be denied love or even physical contact lest they be threatened with infectious microbes. Countering the authority of reigning behavioral psychologists like B.F. Skinner and John Watson, the brilliant renegade Harry Harlow attempted to find the essence of mother love and its influence on child development. Rather than work with rats, Harlow studied primate affection using his classical inanimate surrogate mothers. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Blum (The Monkey Wars) rivetingly recounts Harlow's work while examining the man himself. Harlow argued that mother-child bonding was crucial for normal development, and his experiments with monkeys showed that social organisms cannot survive isolation. But as Blum reveals, Harlow was an enigma, brilliant but distant from his own children, and his work raised ethical and controversial dilemmas concerning the research treatment of animals. Harlow had a major impact on psychologists like Abraham Maslow (who happened to be his graduate student), yet he is little known today outside the scientific community. Blum's excellent biography, the first major new work devoted to him, should change that. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-Rita Hoots, Woodland Coll. Lib., CA

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2002
It was in "The Monkey Wars" (1994), an account of the conflict between scientists who experiment on animals and animal rights activists, that Blum first introduced psychologist Harry Harlow, who died in 1982. Activists were appalled by Harlow's brutal isolation experiments conducted 30 years ago on rhesus monkeys; feminists were not fans either, because Harlow said his conclusions from experiments on mother-child bonding favored a maternal stay-at-home lifestyle. In researching the life of a scientist who excited such animosity from nonscientists, Blum discovered among Harlow's students, many of whom currently work in university psychology departments, a sharpness of opinion about their former mentor. "Sarcastic" and "unsentimental" are some of the adjectives used to describe Harlow's personality. He devised the famous surrogate-mother experiments, which presented monkeys with a choice of warm, cloth-covered or cold, wire-mesh "mothers." Blum integrates clear explanations of the theories Harlow was reacting against (such as behaviorism) with details about his fractured home and personal life. An informative, candid biography. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)