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Through A Window
Jane Goodall has spent most of her life observing the Chimpanzees of Gombe. This sequel to the bestselling "In The Shadow of Man" proves to be even more extraordinary and is as captivating a story of any human community.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1990
557 people are currently reading
7528 people want to read
About the author
Jane Goodall
247 books2,601 followersFor the Australian academic and mystery writer, see Professor Jane R. Goodall.
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace was a world-renowned ethologist and activist inspiring greater understanding and action on behalf of the natural world every single day.
Dr. Goodall was best known for groundbreaking studies of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, transformative research that continues to this day as the longest-running wild chimpanzee study in the world. Dr. Goodall was the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, a global conservation, advocacy, animal welfare, research, and youth empowerment organization, including her global Roots & Shoots program.
Dr. Goodall had worked extensively on climate action, human rights, conservation, and animal welfare issues for decades, and was a central voice in the work to advance environmental progress.
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace was a world-renowned ethologist and activist inspiring greater understanding and action on behalf of the natural world every single day.
Dr. Goodall was best known for groundbreaking studies of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, transformative research that continues to this day as the longest-running wild chimpanzee study in the world. Dr. Goodall was the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, a global conservation, advocacy, animal welfare, research, and youth empowerment organization, including her global Roots & Shoots program.
Dr. Goodall had worked extensively on climate action, human rights, conservation, and animal welfare issues for decades, and was a central voice in the work to advance environmental progress.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
March 10, 2019
I have always been an animal lover. My earliest reading memories involve blue whales because on a trip to Chicago’s Field Museum Of Natural History, I was mesmerized by the skeletons and the next day my mother took me to our local library where over the next few months I proceeded to check out every book on whales and dolphins I could find. This was at the ripe age of three. Over time this appreciation of animals has included supporting the World Wildlife Fund, visiting zoos, dreaming about being a marine biologist, and currently being a cat mother. When a Goodreads friend recently read one of Jane Goodall’s memoirs, I knew that Goodall would be a worthy of my Women’s History Month lineup. I had previously read Dian Fossey’s Gorillas in the Mist way back in high school but never Goodall, so the time was ripe to discover her life with chimpanzees.
In 1960, Jane Goodall first came to Gombe to study chimpanzees at the request of famed ethologist Louis Leakey. Later she received a PhD in sociology from Cambridge University. Goodall’s goal was to build on Leakey’s research that chimpanzees, as well as other animals, have actual feelings and should be referred to as he and she rather than it. Both Leakey and Goodall especially early in their careers had their opinions discredited by the scientific community who believed that only man had the capacity for higher thinking. Goodall maintains that chimpanzees and humans differentiate their DNA by a mere one percent. While this is still a large enough percentage to see how the two species differ, Goodall has seen over the course of her career how chimpanzees do possess inherent feelings and higher thinking skills.
Goodall’s first encounter with chimpanzees occurred when she gave alpha male David Graybeard a banana. This had been Graybeard’s first encounter with humans yet he took the banana and over time he built up trust with Goodall. As such, he was the first chimpanzee that she learned to love. Over the course of thirty years, Goodall and her team of researchers follow the chimpanzees of the Gombe preserve. They chart the relationships of different families and see how a mother’s relationship with her children early on factor into how they became as adults. A nurturing mother as Flo leads to social climbers Figan and Fifi whereas a mother with little room for compassion as Passion gave way to socially passive Pom and Prof. Figan became the community’s alpha male and Fifi enjoyed a strong relationship with him into adulthood and became a mother of five social climbers herself. Passion and Pom, on the other hand, had little capacity for love going as far to kill other women’s babies until she became pregnant herself. Goodall learned to detest Passion’s family as any human would learn to loath the community bully.
The similarities to human society are striking. The climb of males to the alpha position can be equated with a man’s climb to king of the hill in any social setting. Here we note male chimpanzees’ social and sexual exploits and how alliances come into play during their rise to the top. There are also those chimps who are socially inept such as Jomeo who lacked skills with women and to Goodall’s knowledge never aired a child. Yet, he could be thought of as the community’s court jester as Jomeo continually gave new experiences that made the researchers shake their heads. There was also Gigi, a sterile female, who was a tomboy and assisted the males on their patrolling. Over time, however, Gigi possessed a strong maternal instinct and became a surrogate aunt or foster mother to many infants over the years. As such, Gigi became a favorite of both Goodall’s and myself as I enjoyed hearing about her escapades.
Research in the wild is not without risk. In 1974 four students were kidnapped forcing a temporary shutdown of Goodall’s research facility. During this time, two rival groups of chimpanzees fought for superiority and Passion went on her rampage. Yet, Goodall maintains that the Gombe and other wildlife preserves are the safest places for chimpanzees in the world. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute to continue her research as well as fight for rights for chimpanzees and other animal species to have their safe space on this earth. Thousands of chimpanzees are trafficked, used for drug or cosmetic testing, taken as pets and exploited, and forced to live in cages. A natural setting with a mother’s love is still the best place for any creature. Yet, if more people like Goodall do not take up the reigns in the 21st century, sadly, the only place to see our distant relatives will be in zoos.
Jane Goodall broke the glass ceiling of scientific research during an era when all branches of science research were male dominated. Her work as an advocate for animal rights and preservation remain timeless. While chimpanzees may not possess all of the higher thinking skills of humans, we as humans could learn much from our distant relatives. With our higher thinking skills, we have the ability to preserve the planet for animal species and should do so out of love. Jane Goodall remains a leader in animal sociology and her account of chimpanzees in the wild is a worthy read if we are to preserve the planet for generations to come.
4+ stars
In 1960, Jane Goodall first came to Gombe to study chimpanzees at the request of famed ethologist Louis Leakey. Later she received a PhD in sociology from Cambridge University. Goodall’s goal was to build on Leakey’s research that chimpanzees, as well as other animals, have actual feelings and should be referred to as he and she rather than it. Both Leakey and Goodall especially early in their careers had their opinions discredited by the scientific community who believed that only man had the capacity for higher thinking. Goodall maintains that chimpanzees and humans differentiate their DNA by a mere one percent. While this is still a large enough percentage to see how the two species differ, Goodall has seen over the course of her career how chimpanzees do possess inherent feelings and higher thinking skills.
Goodall’s first encounter with chimpanzees occurred when she gave alpha male David Graybeard a banana. This had been Graybeard’s first encounter with humans yet he took the banana and over time he built up trust with Goodall. As such, he was the first chimpanzee that she learned to love. Over the course of thirty years, Goodall and her team of researchers follow the chimpanzees of the Gombe preserve. They chart the relationships of different families and see how a mother’s relationship with her children early on factor into how they became as adults. A nurturing mother as Flo leads to social climbers Figan and Fifi whereas a mother with little room for compassion as Passion gave way to socially passive Pom and Prof. Figan became the community’s alpha male and Fifi enjoyed a strong relationship with him into adulthood and became a mother of five social climbers herself. Passion and Pom, on the other hand, had little capacity for love going as far to kill other women’s babies until she became pregnant herself. Goodall learned to detest Passion’s family as any human would learn to loath the community bully.
The similarities to human society are striking. The climb of males to the alpha position can be equated with a man’s climb to king of the hill in any social setting. Here we note male chimpanzees’ social and sexual exploits and how alliances come into play during their rise to the top. There are also those chimps who are socially inept such as Jomeo who lacked skills with women and to Goodall’s knowledge never aired a child. Yet, he could be thought of as the community’s court jester as Jomeo continually gave new experiences that made the researchers shake their heads. There was also Gigi, a sterile female, who was a tomboy and assisted the males on their patrolling. Over time, however, Gigi possessed a strong maternal instinct and became a surrogate aunt or foster mother to many infants over the years. As such, Gigi became a favorite of both Goodall’s and myself as I enjoyed hearing about her escapades.
Research in the wild is not without risk. In 1974 four students were kidnapped forcing a temporary shutdown of Goodall’s research facility. During this time, two rival groups of chimpanzees fought for superiority and Passion went on her rampage. Yet, Goodall maintains that the Gombe and other wildlife preserves are the safest places for chimpanzees in the world. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute to continue her research as well as fight for rights for chimpanzees and other animal species to have their safe space on this earth. Thousands of chimpanzees are trafficked, used for drug or cosmetic testing, taken as pets and exploited, and forced to live in cages. A natural setting with a mother’s love is still the best place for any creature. Yet, if more people like Goodall do not take up the reigns in the 21st century, sadly, the only place to see our distant relatives will be in zoos.
Jane Goodall broke the glass ceiling of scientific research during an era when all branches of science research were male dominated. Her work as an advocate for animal rights and preservation remain timeless. While chimpanzees may not possess all of the higher thinking skills of humans, we as humans could learn much from our distant relatives. With our higher thinking skills, we have the ability to preserve the planet for animal species and should do so out of love. Jane Goodall remains a leader in animal sociology and her account of chimpanzees in the wild is a worthy read if we are to preserve the planet for generations to come.
4+ stars
April 20, 2019
Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe has a slow start. If you are bored at the beginning do not give up! By the end I was captivated. I came to feel close to the chimps. They had become my friends and I their fan. I related to them as to fellow human beings.
Today it is common knowledge that animals have both emotions and intelligence. When Jane Goodall began her work in 1960 with the chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, behavioral psychology ruled. Her views were criticized as being anthropomorphic. The start of the book discusses this, as well as describing the improved tools and techniques now available to scientists in their study of animals—DNA coding, fecal analyses, GPS and advanced computer software.
Thereafter follows a section concerning chimpanzees’ sexual idiosyncrasies and behavior pattern. This I found tedious and repetitive. The reader does not yet view the chimpanzees as separate, identifiable individuals. They are a conglomerate, a group, rather than individuals to whom one can relate.
Then the book improves. It is here the book begins to focus upon individual chimpanzees at Gombe, as well as some of the baboons that resided there. The focus shifts to information about particular chimpanzees. We learn to recognize each by name and personality. We learn who is related to whom and their respective social standing. Each one has a history. Each chimpanzee and the relationships that develop between them take on a whole new dimension.
We learn of the seductress Gigi, unable to give birth, she lovingly cares for other young and orphans. We see how Passion and her daughter Pom became vicious, hateful cannibals. There is Melissa, the tenacious mother of twins, her daughter Gremlin and her most endearing grandson Getty who dies. Goodall’s heart fell to the grey-chinned David Greybeard. Mine went out to the huge, chickenhearted Jomeo. He tries to pull off an impressive splash by rolling down a boulder, but it would not budge. He trips over tree roots, bungles all attempts at hunting and is clearly the laughingstock of the community. He melted my heart. It is in getting to know the individual chimps that the book comes to the fore. Their feelings and their behavior are so similar to our own; one cannot help but compare and think.
The book ties up well. Intriguing conclusions are drawn comparing both the similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees. Humans’ and chimpanzees’ genetic make-up differ by only a little more than one percent. An afterword and two appendices stress the importance of conservation of chimpanzee habitats, sanctuaries, education and improved pharmaceutical labs and testing facilities. The Jane Goodall Institute is to be lauded.
Jane closes by quoting Albert Schweitzer:
“We need a boundless ethic that includes animals too.”
In coming close to the Gombe chimpanzees, readers empathize and feel the urgent need to bring about change.
The audiobook is narrated by Pearl Hewitt. The reading is fine, but I would have preferred a more resonant, stronger voice. Th conclusion, afterword and appendices she reads too fast. I have given the narration three stars.
The book is more a biography of the chimps than it is a biography of Jane.
*********************
Other books of interest:
*Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe 4 stars
*Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel (4 stars)
*How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain (5 stars)
*The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think (4 stars)
*The Art of Raising a Puppy (4 stars)
*Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (3 stars)
*Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes: The Science of Animal Personalities (3 stars)
*Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story ( 3 stars)
*Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (4 stars)
*Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl (5 stars)
*One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives (4 stars)
*Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process (3 stars)
(I mention the book on Alex only because it is covered in de de Waal's book. I didn’t love it.)
Today it is common knowledge that animals have both emotions and intelligence. When Jane Goodall began her work in 1960 with the chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, behavioral psychology ruled. Her views were criticized as being anthropomorphic. The start of the book discusses this, as well as describing the improved tools and techniques now available to scientists in their study of animals—DNA coding, fecal analyses, GPS and advanced computer software.
Thereafter follows a section concerning chimpanzees’ sexual idiosyncrasies and behavior pattern. This I found tedious and repetitive. The reader does not yet view the chimpanzees as separate, identifiable individuals. They are a conglomerate, a group, rather than individuals to whom one can relate.
Then the book improves. It is here the book begins to focus upon individual chimpanzees at Gombe, as well as some of the baboons that resided there. The focus shifts to information about particular chimpanzees. We learn to recognize each by name and personality. We learn who is related to whom and their respective social standing. Each one has a history. Each chimpanzee and the relationships that develop between them take on a whole new dimension.
We learn of the seductress Gigi, unable to give birth, she lovingly cares for other young and orphans. We see how Passion and her daughter Pom became vicious, hateful cannibals. There is Melissa, the tenacious mother of twins, her daughter Gremlin and her most endearing grandson Getty who dies. Goodall’s heart fell to the grey-chinned David Greybeard. Mine went out to the huge, chickenhearted Jomeo. He tries to pull off an impressive splash by rolling down a boulder, but it would not budge. He trips over tree roots, bungles all attempts at hunting and is clearly the laughingstock of the community. He melted my heart. It is in getting to know the individual chimps that the book comes to the fore. Their feelings and their behavior are so similar to our own; one cannot help but compare and think.
The book ties up well. Intriguing conclusions are drawn comparing both the similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees. Humans’ and chimpanzees’ genetic make-up differ by only a little more than one percent. An afterword and two appendices stress the importance of conservation of chimpanzee habitats, sanctuaries, education and improved pharmaceutical labs and testing facilities. The Jane Goodall Institute is to be lauded.
Jane closes by quoting Albert Schweitzer:
“We need a boundless ethic that includes animals too.”
In coming close to the Gombe chimpanzees, readers empathize and feel the urgent need to bring about change.
The audiobook is narrated by Pearl Hewitt. The reading is fine, but I would have preferred a more resonant, stronger voice. Th conclusion, afterword and appendices she reads too fast. I have given the narration three stars.
The book is more a biography of the chimps than it is a biography of Jane.
*********************
Other books of interest:
*Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe 4 stars
*Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel (4 stars)
*How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain (5 stars)
*The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think (4 stars)
*The Art of Raising a Puppy (4 stars)
*Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (3 stars)
*Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes: The Science of Animal Personalities (3 stars)
*Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story ( 3 stars)
*Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (4 stars)
*Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl (5 stars)
*One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives (4 stars)
*Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process (3 stars)
(I mention the book on Alex only because it is covered in de de Waal's book. I didn’t love it.)
April 17, 2017
To be read by those of you who love our beautiful and so rich Wildlife
December 19, 2015
"How much we have yet to learn."
Jane Goodall now joins Dostoyevsky, Wharton, and Wouk as authors whose books I have attempted, abandoned, returned to, completed, and treasured.
Through a Window is the history of a family. It spans 30 years in a chimpanzee community inhabiting the Gombe wilderness of Tanzania. With Jane Goodall as our guide, we are introduced to a group of individuals with personalities and life stories as distinctive as those of any human. There's Gilka, an outgoing and playful youngster who grows up into an unlucky, crippled outcast. There's Jomeo, physically imposing but uninterested in using that strength to climb the social ladder. There's Flo, the skillful matriarch whose influence can be seen in her descendants long after she leaves the world. Through the interactions of these and many other members of the Gombe tribe, we can observe inklings of practices that are sometimes regarded as human inventions, including war, monogamy, and adoption.
On the subject of humans, the beginning and end of the book address the rocky relationship between our species and the chimpanzees, from the scientific community's early pushback against the idea of chimps having emotions, to ongoing abuse of these animals for the sake of research and entertainment. As devastating as these issues are, Goodall also gives voice to the many people working to preserve habitats for chimps in the wild, as well as those making existence more bearable for chimps in captivity.
Goodall's writing is sharp and descriptive, and I admire her ability to integrate and transition between the different topics covered in this book. She immerses us in the beauty, the horror, and the mystery of the lives of our closest living relatives.
July 23, 2020
Chimpanzees manifest the same behavioral patterns of strategic warfare, territoriality, and xenophobia, that humans do. The leading male chimps are those that chase top status and are obsessed with dominance over simple short-term material goals such as food and reproduction, similar to our own psychopathological leaders/CEOs. They also manifest our more pacific or cooperative repertoire of behaviors and gestures-- kissing, embracing, stooping obsequiously to community members of higher status, sharing food, conciliatory assistance of weaker family members. Thus, the study of chimpanzee behavior is helpful in pinpointing which of our own social behaviors have a genetic basis. As Dr. Goodall pointed out, we are keen to link human physiognomy to chimpanzee biology when justifying animal testing of medicine and other products, but we are dismissive of making the same associative leap between chimpanzee mind, emotions, and morals and human mind, emotions, and morals. This is a very interesting book that once again, transports the reader to Gombe Stream Park.
October 7, 2025
RIP Jane Goodall <3
This was a delightful read. From her fighting to ensure pronouns and respect are used when referring to individual Chimps to her detailed observations and concerns for them really showcase how much she appreciated and cared about them. I really enjoyed that she took the time and care to really get to know each Chimp from their behaviors and personalities to their personal histories and relationships.
She also wove in her personal life really well, especially when she compared how becoming a mom herself altered her perspective on Chimp motherhood to a deeper level.
She does not shy away though so if you think Chimp sexual behaviors might be weird for you, I wouldn't suggest it. She is incredibly analytical and detailed in this.
This was a delightful read. From her fighting to ensure pronouns and respect are used when referring to individual Chimps to her detailed observations and concerns for them really showcase how much she appreciated and cared about them. I really enjoyed that she took the time and care to really get to know each Chimp from their behaviors and personalities to their personal histories and relationships.
She also wove in her personal life really well, especially when she compared how becoming a mom herself altered her perspective on Chimp motherhood to a deeper level.
She does not shy away though so if you think Chimp sexual behaviors might be weird for you, I wouldn't suggest it. She is incredibly analytical and detailed in this.
July 24, 2011
I have read every book that Jane Goodall wrote. She has an easy-going writing style that shares scientific principals easily with the layman. Probably because when she started, she was little more than a novice, going from secretarial school to the Gombe to study chimpanzees. She stayed there on and off for thirty years. This book, Through a Window (Houghton Mifflin 1990) shares her thoughts and conclusions on what she learned from that stretch of time with the chimpanzees.
The book reads like an anecdotal history of a town, inhabited by chimpanzees, but no less vibrant than any human town you might visit. Families mingle, struggle for survival, fight for loedership. Children mate and have babies. Parenting styles differ, which dramatically affects the future of the youngsters. A war between factions breaks out and residents take sides. There is death and rebirth, pain and sorrow, and rebirth again.
This book could be considered about animal behaviro, but I challenge you to read it--without knowing it deals with chimps--and not recognize your neighbors, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues in the caste. You'll find the emotions you'd experience in friends and the actions you'd expect from those you work with. You'll think it's the history of a small town.
And it is, but a town of primates.
The chapter titles tell you what you're in for:
Mothers and daughters
Figan's rise
Power
Change
Sex
War
Sons and Mothers
Love
Bridging the Gap
Sound familiar? By the time I finished this book, after reading Goodall's others, I never looked at chimpanzees or any of the great apes the same. Their emotions, actions, thoughts, desires are too close to human to be relegated to some 'animal' that we can't understand. I'd recommend this for all those interested in studying our humanity.
The book reads like an anecdotal history of a town, inhabited by chimpanzees, but no less vibrant than any human town you might visit. Families mingle, struggle for survival, fight for loedership. Children mate and have babies. Parenting styles differ, which dramatically affects the future of the youngsters. A war between factions breaks out and residents take sides. There is death and rebirth, pain and sorrow, and rebirth again.
This book could be considered about animal behaviro, but I challenge you to read it--without knowing it deals with chimps--and not recognize your neighbors, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues in the caste. You'll find the emotions you'd experience in friends and the actions you'd expect from those you work with. You'll think it's the history of a small town.
And it is, but a town of primates.
The chapter titles tell you what you're in for:
Mothers and daughters
Figan's rise
Power
Change
Sex
War
Sons and Mothers
Love
Bridging the Gap
Sound familiar? By the time I finished this book, after reading Goodall's others, I never looked at chimpanzees or any of the great apes the same. Their emotions, actions, thoughts, desires are too close to human to be relegated to some 'animal' that we can't understand. I'd recommend this for all those interested in studying our humanity.
September 4, 2019
Jane Goodall has done decades of groundbreaking research on the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania. This is her account of her work there over thirty years, starting when it was still scientific heresy to describe animals as having thoughts and emotions--even animals so obviously close to us in evolutionary terms as chimpanzees. Goodall didn't have a degree at all, much less in ethology, when Louis Leakey recruited her to study chimpanzees, so she described what she saw in the chimpanzees' behavior. When Leakey arranged funding and sent her to Cambridge University in 1962 to get a PhD in ethology, Goodall discovered the narrow view of the scientific establishment. In order to get her scientific work published, she pushed back where she could and compromised where she had to, and gradually had an impact on the silly practice of talking about higher mammals as inanimate objects.
But this book is mostly about the chimpanzees of Gombe, their interactions with each other and with her. Chimpanzee society is complex and in many ways very familiar, though also very different. Biology alone means that sexual relations among chimpanzees are rather different than among humans. Yet chimpanzees have clear family bonds, and maternal child-rearing skills make a significant impact on the kind of adults the young chimps mature into them. She observed not only tool use, but tool making, and suggested, to the skepticism of many, that different chimp communities would prove to have different tool-making cultures and practices. (She was right.) I remember the outrage and distress when that mean Jane Goodall claimed chimpanzees engaged in war against other chimp communities they were in conflict with. (She documented it happening between two chimp communities in Gombe.)
The personalities of the chimpanzees of Gombe are beautifully and compellingly described, and, careful observer that she is, it's highly informative. Politics and power structures among chimpanzees, our closest relatives, are quite recognizable. On the one hand, chimps aren't going to be building multistory buildings anytime in the next few millennia. On the other hand, we can definitely see ourselves in them in many ways.
It's a fascinating look at chimpanzees by one of the people on this planet who knows them best. Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
But this book is mostly about the chimpanzees of Gombe, their interactions with each other and with her. Chimpanzee society is complex and in many ways very familiar, though also very different. Biology alone means that sexual relations among chimpanzees are rather different than among humans. Yet chimpanzees have clear family bonds, and maternal child-rearing skills make a significant impact on the kind of adults the young chimps mature into them. She observed not only tool use, but tool making, and suggested, to the skepticism of many, that different chimp communities would prove to have different tool-making cultures and practices. (She was right.) I remember the outrage and distress when that mean Jane Goodall claimed chimpanzees engaged in war against other chimp communities they were in conflict with. (She documented it happening between two chimp communities in Gombe.)
The personalities of the chimpanzees of Gombe are beautifully and compellingly described, and, careful observer that she is, it's highly informative. Politics and power structures among chimpanzees, our closest relatives, are quite recognizable. On the one hand, chimps aren't going to be building multistory buildings anytime in the next few millennia. On the other hand, we can definitely see ourselves in them in many ways.
It's a fascinating look at chimpanzees by one of the people on this planet who knows them best. Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
June 10, 2017
4.5 stars
This was originally written in 1990, 30 years after Jane Goodall went to Gombe National Park in Tanzania to study chimpanzees My edition was published in 2010, so there is even extra info with a preface and an afterword written by Jane in 2009. This continues/updates her first book on the chimps of Gombe, In the Shadow of Man.
I read In the Shadow of Man a number of years ago, but I loved revisiting the same chimps and their offspring, and following them later in the their lives! Jane is also an adamant activist/conservationist, so at the end of the book, after all the extra chimp information and updates (which really is the bulk of the book), she writes a little bit about human-raised chimps, chimps used in experiments, chimps losing their habitat, etc. There are a number of photos of the chimps included, as well. Overall, I really really enjoyed reading this!
This was originally written in 1990, 30 years after Jane Goodall went to Gombe National Park in Tanzania to study chimpanzees My edition was published in 2010, so there is even extra info with a preface and an afterword written by Jane in 2009. This continues/updates her first book on the chimps of Gombe, In the Shadow of Man.
I read In the Shadow of Man a number of years ago, but I loved revisiting the same chimps and their offspring, and following them later in the their lives! Jane is also an adamant activist/conservationist, so at the end of the book, after all the extra chimp information and updates (which really is the bulk of the book), she writes a little bit about human-raised chimps, chimps used in experiments, chimps losing their habitat, etc. There are a number of photos of the chimps included, as well. Overall, I really really enjoyed reading this!
April 11, 2022
No review is necessary for this iconic scientist, but I particularly loved reading her takedown of the mansplainers that tried to dismiss her early work. Very interesting chapter at the end regarding her insights about animal testing.
March 21, 2023
It’s hard for me to imagine not being fascinated by our fellow great apes, but this quote from the end of Through a Window sums up why understanding chimpanzees and our relationship to them is so important:
“The chimpanzee is more like us than is any other living being. Physiological similarities have been enthusiastically described by scientists for many years, and have led to the use of chimpanzees as 'models' for the study of certain infectious diseases to which most non-human animals are resistant. There are, of course, equally striking similarities between humans and chimpanzees in the anatomy of the brain and nervous system, and - although many have been reluctant to admit to these - in social behaviour, cognition and emotionality. Because chimpanzees show intellectual abilities once thought unique to our own species, the line between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, once thought to be so clear, has become blurred. Chimpanzees bridge the gap between us' and them'.
Let us hope that this new understanding of the chimpanzees' place in nature will bring some relief to the hundreds who presently live out their lives as prisoners, in bondage to Man. Let us hope that our knowledge of their capacity for affection and enjoyment and fun, for fear and sadness and suffering, will lead us to treat them with the same compassion that we would show towards fellow humans. Let us hope that while medical science continues to use chimpanzees for painful or psychologically distressing experiments, we shall have the honesty to label such research for what, from the chimpanzees point of view, it certainly is - the infliction of torture on innocent victims.
And let us hope that our understanding of the chimpanzee will lead also to a better understanding of the nature of other non-human animals, a new attitude towards the other species with which we share this planet. For, as Albert Schweitzer said, We need a boundless ethic that includes animals too.
And at the present time our ethic, where non-human animals are concerned, is limited and confused.”
“The chimpanzee is more like us than is any other living being. Physiological similarities have been enthusiastically described by scientists for many years, and have led to the use of chimpanzees as 'models' for the study of certain infectious diseases to which most non-human animals are resistant. There are, of course, equally striking similarities between humans and chimpanzees in the anatomy of the brain and nervous system, and - although many have been reluctant to admit to these - in social behaviour, cognition and emotionality. Because chimpanzees show intellectual abilities once thought unique to our own species, the line between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, once thought to be so clear, has become blurred. Chimpanzees bridge the gap between us' and them'.
Let us hope that this new understanding of the chimpanzees' place in nature will bring some relief to the hundreds who presently live out their lives as prisoners, in bondage to Man. Let us hope that our knowledge of their capacity for affection and enjoyment and fun, for fear and sadness and suffering, will lead us to treat them with the same compassion that we would show towards fellow humans. Let us hope that while medical science continues to use chimpanzees for painful or psychologically distressing experiments, we shall have the honesty to label such research for what, from the chimpanzees point of view, it certainly is - the infliction of torture on innocent victims.
And let us hope that our understanding of the chimpanzee will lead also to a better understanding of the nature of other non-human animals, a new attitude towards the other species with which we share this planet. For, as Albert Schweitzer said, We need a boundless ethic that includes animals too.
And at the present time our ethic, where non-human animals are concerned, is limited and confused.”
October 10, 2021
Through a Window, published in 1990, in a sense is Goodall's sequel to her 1971 book, In the Shadow of Man. There is no real problem in reading Thorough a Window without having read the earlier book, but I recommend reading both if you can. The earlier work gives context to the later one, an understanding of how the research on chimpanzees at Gombe, Tanzania began, when it was just Goodall and her mother in a tent with a local assistant or two. This later book reveals a greater understanding of chimpanzee behavior acquired after an additional twenty years of study. Much of the middle portion tells the stories of individual chimpanzees and their families, which makes particularly interesting reading. I felt an appendix of family trees of the most-mentioned chimp families would have been helpful, but there is a good index that allows the reader to look up earlier mentions of a chimp or other information.
November 5, 2025
reading this while employed and living on site at the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary was a religious experience
July 6, 2012
I was with my family at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) over the recent Christmas break and happened to see a display based on Jane Goodall’s work with the chimpanzees of Gombe on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. I’d always enjoyed primate exhibits at zoos, and the OMSI exhibit encouraged me to do some further reading.
Through a Window is Goodall’s autobiographical retrospective on her facinating career in Gombe. The stories of the chimpanzees that form the core of this book read more like sociology than biology. Their personalities and habits are wonderfully told. Altruism, murder, war, affection, ambition, depression, kindness, anger—the chimpanzees exhibit all these behaviors and more.
Goodall presents a variety of approaches in order to illustrate the breadth of chimp personality and society. Some chapters focus on specific behaviors: “Power,” “Sex,” “War.” Other chapters provide biographical sketches of individuals. Two chapters outline the relationships between “Mothers and Daughters” on the one hand and “Sons and Mothers” on the other. There’s also a very interesting chapter on the interactions between baboons and chimpanzees: competitors for food, childhood playmates, and occasionally sex partners.
It is this sophistication of chimpanzee society that Goodall believes places a heavy moral burden on humans. The contrast between these primates in their natural communities and others in man-made prisons could not be more stark. Looking back on the individual chimps she has known, Goodall attests that “my affection for them is close to love. But it is a love for beings who are essentially wild and free.” Keeping chimpanzees alive—as pets, zoo exhibits, or labratory subjects—is not the same as letting them live. As with humans, chimpanzee personalities and society are far more intricate than the sum of their biological raw material.
Through a Window is Goodall’s autobiographical retrospective on her facinating career in Gombe. The stories of the chimpanzees that form the core of this book read more like sociology than biology. Their personalities and habits are wonderfully told. Altruism, murder, war, affection, ambition, depression, kindness, anger—the chimpanzees exhibit all these behaviors and more.
Goodall presents a variety of approaches in order to illustrate the breadth of chimp personality and society. Some chapters focus on specific behaviors: “Power,” “Sex,” “War.” Other chapters provide biographical sketches of individuals. Two chapters outline the relationships between “Mothers and Daughters” on the one hand and “Sons and Mothers” on the other. There’s also a very interesting chapter on the interactions between baboons and chimpanzees: competitors for food, childhood playmates, and occasionally sex partners.
It is this sophistication of chimpanzee society that Goodall believes places a heavy moral burden on humans. The contrast between these primates in their natural communities and others in man-made prisons could not be more stark. Looking back on the individual chimps she has known, Goodall attests that “my affection for them is close to love. But it is a love for beings who are essentially wild and free.” Keeping chimpanzees alive—as pets, zoo exhibits, or labratory subjects—is not the same as letting them live. As with humans, chimpanzee personalities and society are far more intricate than the sum of their biological raw material.
November 3, 2012
I have admired Jane Goodall ever since seeing "Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees" on TV when I was quite young. This book didn't disappoint. It is primarily a chronicle of the first thirty years of the work observing chimpanzee behavior at the Gombe reserve on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. There is a shorter summary at the end which discusses the intervening years with updates on the inhabitants of the reserve.
I have to agree with other reviews that I have read that say this book reads more like a novel as it, indeed, provides a window to the reader on a fascinating and complex society. A social hierarchy that demonstrates how similar we humans are to the chimpanzee with everything from nurture to jealousy to power, cooperation, striving for status within the community, finding the best mates, and, yes, brutal violence and genocide. Ms Goodall's writing style is quite approachable and those who are afraid this might read like a Ph.D. thesis have nothing to fear. Ms. Goodall takes us into this world as a keen observer and we come to know and care about the lives and welfare of these families of chimps while we cannot help but see how many of their traits - both good and bad - that we share.
I have to agree with other reviews that I have read that say this book reads more like a novel as it, indeed, provides a window to the reader on a fascinating and complex society. A social hierarchy that demonstrates how similar we humans are to the chimpanzee with everything from nurture to jealousy to power, cooperation, striving for status within the community, finding the best mates, and, yes, brutal violence and genocide. Ms Goodall's writing style is quite approachable and those who are afraid this might read like a Ph.D. thesis have nothing to fear. Ms. Goodall takes us into this world as a keen observer and we come to know and care about the lives and welfare of these families of chimps while we cannot help but see how many of their traits - both good and bad - that we share.
August 8, 2024
"Porque los chimpancés, como los humanos, tienen su propia historia".
"Si un chimpancé —uno, además, que ha sido maltratado por los humanos— puede saltar la barrera de las especies para ayudar a un amigo humano en necesidad, seguro que nosotros, con nuestra más profunda capacidad de compasión y comprensión, podemos ayudar a los chimpancés que hoy nos necesitan tan desesperadamente ¿verdad?".
Siempre me ha intrigado la vida de Jane Goodall, así que apenas me enteré de la existencia de este libro, quise leerlo.
Este libro es un vistazo a una pequeña comunidad de Chimpancés en Gombe, a través de treinta años de estudio. En él, Goodall nos explica mucho sobre los Chimpancés y sus capacidades en general, pero también nos cuenta sobre algunos individuos de la comunidad que destacaron por un motivo particular, mientras relata pequeños detalles de su vida en esos años.
Aprendí mucho con esta lectura, descubrí como funciona la mente de estos primates, su forma de relacionarse, sus organizaciones sociales, me sorprendí y emocioné con las historias de muchos Chimpancés como Melissa, Gigi, Flo y Figan.
No puedo hacer más que recomendar este libro a cualquiera que quiera saber un poquito más sobre estos animales o, lógicamente, sobre la vida de Jane Goodall.
"Si un chimpancé —uno, además, que ha sido maltratado por los humanos— puede saltar la barrera de las especies para ayudar a un amigo humano en necesidad, seguro que nosotros, con nuestra más profunda capacidad de compasión y comprensión, podemos ayudar a los chimpancés que hoy nos necesitan tan desesperadamente ¿verdad?".
Siempre me ha intrigado la vida de Jane Goodall, así que apenas me enteré de la existencia de este libro, quise leerlo.
Este libro es un vistazo a una pequeña comunidad de Chimpancés en Gombe, a través de treinta años de estudio. En él, Goodall nos explica mucho sobre los Chimpancés y sus capacidades en general, pero también nos cuenta sobre algunos individuos de la comunidad que destacaron por un motivo particular, mientras relata pequeños detalles de su vida en esos años.
Aprendí mucho con esta lectura, descubrí como funciona la mente de estos primates, su forma de relacionarse, sus organizaciones sociales, me sorprendí y emocioné con las historias de muchos Chimpancés como Melissa, Gigi, Flo y Figan.
No puedo hacer más que recomendar este libro a cualquiera que quiera saber un poquito más sobre estos animales o, lógicamente, sobre la vida de Jane Goodall.
December 18, 2017
Personally, I was looking forward to this book. The first few chapters really enticed me, but as I kept reading I began to feel like it was too repetitive and had too many chimps it was focusing on. I could not keep track of all the names! The writing style was good, but I just found it dull towards the late middle.
December 9, 2018
It’s written like a novel/drama about chimpanzee social life which is just not interesting to me. I only enjoyed at the end where she talked about what she learned from the observations and how they were used in a wider context scientifically
April 8, 2019
I really enjoyed this. It was a little difficult to keep all the names straight, especially since the first letter of the names of offspring are the same as the mother's, but other than that it's a relatively easy read and has lots of memorable scenes of both exciting action as well as humor. In particular, the more disturbing behavior is rendered in gut-wrenching detail and you feel the sadness when a favorite is found dead. Even though I've read about chimpanzees before, I learned some new things and now I want to read more from Dr. Goodall.
November 15, 2021
So interesting! And not exactly what I was expecting; Jane Goodall was treated by the chimpanzees as one of them which included some pretty rough treatment, for example. Her writing is easy to read, informative, interesting, and sometimes a little shocking.
October 20, 2021
"Thus although our 'bad' is worse, immeasurably worse, than the worst conceivable actions of our closest living relatives, let us take comfort in the knowledge that our 'good' can be incomparably better."
Jane Goodall takes us through her years of work at Gombe weaving her observations together very much like a story, while sharing details of various groups of chimpanzees; their lives, family ties and inter community wars. Both the good and the deeply disturbing. A species so frighteningly close to our own, in so many ways.
An insightful read. Also, enjoyed her writing style - simple and engaging.
Jane Goodall takes us through her years of work at Gombe weaving her observations together very much like a story, while sharing details of various groups of chimpanzees; their lives, family ties and inter community wars. Both the good and the deeply disturbing. A species so frighteningly close to our own, in so many ways.
An insightful read. Also, enjoyed her writing style - simple and engaging.
February 2, 2019
Me he dado cuenta de lo poco que sabía de los chimpancés y de lo mucho que nos parecemos, especialmente en los lazos sociales y en la agresividad. Dosis de realidad, una llamada al cuidado del medio ambiente y mucho trabajo detrás lleno de cariño. Gran labor de vida la de Jane Goodall, impresionante :)
October 11, 2025
Written in the 90’s, some of the information contained in this book is outdated. That being said what Jane Goodall experienced changed the way animal behavior is viewed. Because she was not a scientist, she brought non-scientific observations to her research. Because she was not a scientist she did not merely observe, she interacted with the chimpanzees. Setting up feeding stations,although altruistic, actually was a detriment to the chimpanzees’ normal way of life. The feeding stations were thought to have created aggressive behavior and to have brought an increase in illnesses. My perception of chimpanzees has changed since reading this book. Chimpanzees are extremely aggressive and can be very dangerous, but there was an extremely strong bond with mother/child relationships (for the most part). Jane Goodall was dedicated to her beliefs and brought much attention to animal rights initiatives.
June 9, 2025
“We are an endlessly complex and fascinating species. We carry in our genes, handed down from our distant past, deep-rooted aggressive tendencies… While chimpanzees to an extent have an awareness of the pain they inflict on their victims, only we, I believe, are capable of real cruelty.”
Wow—this was an unexpectedly fascinating read. In full transparency, I picked this up after listening to Jane Goodall on the Call Her Daddy podcast a few weeks ago. I don’t even listen to CHD very often so I’m glad I gave it a shot.
I’ve always loosely known Jane Goodall as a trailblazer for women in science, especially for her work with chimps, but I’d never done a deep dive. I’ve long been interested in human psychology and how much of our behavior is instinctual i.e. what’s hardwired, and what’s shaped by culture.
Goodall explores this through decades of research on the chimpanzees of Gombe, weaving scientific insight with vivid, compassionate storytelling. By the end, I felt deeply connected to the chimps themselves. She lays out the observations and allows the reader space to wrestle with the “why?”
I’m definitely planning to read more of her work.
Wow—this was an unexpectedly fascinating read. In full transparency, I picked this up after listening to Jane Goodall on the Call Her Daddy podcast a few weeks ago. I don’t even listen to CHD very often so I’m glad I gave it a shot.
I’ve always loosely known Jane Goodall as a trailblazer for women in science, especially for her work with chimps, but I’d never done a deep dive. I’ve long been interested in human psychology and how much of our behavior is instinctual i.e. what’s hardwired, and what’s shaped by culture.
Goodall explores this through decades of research on the chimpanzees of Gombe, weaving scientific insight with vivid, compassionate storytelling. By the end, I felt deeply connected to the chimps themselves. She lays out the observations and allows the reader space to wrestle with the “why?”
I’m definitely planning to read more of her work.
January 14, 2026
Jane Goodall has once again let us into the complex lives of the chimpanzees in Gombe. After reading In the Shadow of Man years ago, I’ve wanted to read another of her books. She educates readers in a very accessible way, intertwining facts with her field work stories. I’m always amazed at what she started and how much she was able to accomplish, and her legacy continues to inspire me to do better in my job (animal care and behavior) each day.
February 22, 2022
Bardzo dobra książka przyrodnicza. Sprawiła że znów poczułem się zaciekawiony i odniosłem wrażenie, że wkraczam na zupełnie nieznane mi terytorium. Bardzo przystępna, interesująca i przede wszystkim moralizatorska, ale w tym pozytywnym sensie. Z jednej strony pozwala poznać z bliska świat naszych najbliższych kuzynów w świecie zwierząt, a z drugiej pochylić się nad naturą ludzką. Polecam
October 31, 2025
I loved this (although I went in being biased, what girl doesn’t grow up hearing about and loving Jane Goodall) Except for the last few chapters*, it’s like Game of Thrones but with chimpanzees and written by a (intelligent, inspiring) woman.
*the last few chapters go incredibly hard, and you know Goodall’s going in for the kill when she starts the sentence with “Indeed” or “In fact”.
*the last few chapters go incredibly hard, and you know Goodall’s going in for the kill when she starts the sentence with “Indeed” or “In fact”.
September 24, 2018
An excellent novel about the Gombe Chimpanzee Group as told in an earnest, charming and talkative manner by Dr. Goodall. Fascinating read on the intricate relationships between Chimps, following lineages and discussing the war and chimp-brutality that came between some of them.
February 8, 2023
so amazing
May 13, 2025
The chapter on Gigi being the town slut was maybe the most beautiful piece of writing I've ever read
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