Through a Window Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe

About this book

Condensed and rewritten version of Jane Goodall's monumental scientific treatise, The Chimpanzees of Gombe, for the general reader.

Through a Window is the dramatic saga of thirty years in the life of an intimately intertwined community – one that reads like a novel, but is one of the most important scientific works ever published. The community is Gombe, on the shores of Africa's Lake Tanganyika, where the principal residents are chimpanzees and one extraordinary woman who is their student, protector, and historian.

In her classic In the Shadow of Man, Jane Goodall wrote of her first ten years at Gombe. In Through a Window she brings the story up to the present, painting a more complete and vivid portrait of our closest relatives. We watch young Figan's relentless rise to power and old Mike's crushing defeat. We learn how one mother rears her children to succeed and another dooms hers to failure. We witness horrifying murders, touching moments of affection, joyous births, and wrenching deaths. In short, we see every emotion known to humans stripped to its essence. In the mirror of chimpanzee life, we see ourselves reflected.

This edition includes a new preface by Dr. Goodall and a new afterword where she reflects on Gombe and its residents over the past twenty years.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Jane Goodall is an English zoologist. She is a renowned expert on chimpanzees, having studied them at the Gombe Stream Reserve by Lake Tanganyika from 1970. She has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. Her books include IN THE SHADOW OF MAN, published in more than forty languages. She is the winner of the Kyoto Prize (1990), Hubbard Medal (1995), Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1997), is a UN Ambassador, and received her Damehood in 2004.