by Jane Goodall
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Product Description
THROUGH A WINDOW is the dramatic saga of thirty years in the life of a community, of birth and death, sex and love, power and war. It reads like a novel, but it is one of the most important scientific works ever published. The community is Gombe, on the shores of Lake Tangganyika, 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 much more complete and vivid portrait of our closest relative. We see the community split in two and a brutal war break out. 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 them 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. Perhaps the best book ever written about animal behavior, Through a Window is also essential reading for anyone seeking a better grasp of human behavior.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Jane's seminal work is still relevant and great, 2008-03-07
Jane Goodall needs no introduction, she cares for nature, earth and all the creatures on it. Some critize her seemingly unorthodox methods and her supposed "cult of personality." However, reading this book made me fascinated by our closest living relatives and how they are really so similiar to ourselves. It made me remember that we too are animals, but we are intelligent and the dominaters of the earth. But with that role, we have to protect the voiceless. Both scientific and thoughtful, the narrative of this book is good for any science class, home library or bedside stand. The most interesting parts for me were the chapters about alpha-male battles, the emotions of chimpanzees and the conclusion which discusses how we must be stewards of the earth.
I am going to read the rest of this amazing woman's books.
Jane is amazing!
*****/***** for Through a Window
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A brash girl named Jane, 2007-11-27
To anyone old enough to remember the first field reports from a brash girl named Jane, who chose to live alone with a troop of chimps in Tanzania, way back in the 60s, it has to be a little boggling to realize that she has kept at it for 47 years (as of this writing). Oh, sure, we've seen the TV specials and the magazine stories, and some of us may have read her account of the first decade, IN THE SHADOW OF MAN. But, we do have our lives to attend to, and Goodall's ongoing work easily fades into the background noise. In our long struggle to understand the locus of humanity in nature, there is surely no work more crucial than this. Goodall's discoveries about our closest genetic cousins have uncontestably shown us our place. We are not much different than chimps, merely more so. A young woman, too naive in the ways of science to "know" that animals don't have personalities, saw them clearly. Her honest reporting, championed by her mentor Louis Leakey, overturned a system that harkened back to Descartes (who, we must remember, kicked his dogs often to demonstrate that their mechanical reaction bore no likeness to human pain). After Goodall, animals are "its" no more, they are "whos." THROUGH A WINDOW, is the story of the evolution of one girl's dream into a research center, with dozens of assistants, who have tracked and documented a chimpanzee society through the years. It is the report of political change, as different chimp leaders come to prominence, of family loyalty and discord, and of the look in chimpanzee eyes searching our own for ... understanding? It is equally a reminder that her happiest times remain the hours she steals to spend a day alone with the friends she knows so well: the aging matriarch who was a chimp babe in arms in 1960, and her grandson now moving toward dominance of the troop; older siblings teaching youngsters to fashion tools to 'fish' for termites; the deposed leader racked out in a leafy hammock - remembering his glory days? Coupled with work done by others, partly inspired by Goodall - such as the teaching of American Sign Language to captive chimps, who in turn, TEACH THEIR OWN CHILDREN TO SIGN, manipulating their babies hands into words while pointing at objects - the idea that anyone presumes to defend vivisecting these fellow earthlings is incomprehensible. There is far more going on in chimpanzee heads than was, for instance, in the severely mentally handicapped humans I houseparented years ago. Our staff spent years trying to teach some of our clients a single hand sign, and when they did occasionally manage it, it was seldom clear if there was understanding attached. Chimps create their own sentences, even invent combinations to describe novel experiences. Yet no one (these days, at least) suggests it is ethical to give AIDs to developmentally disabled children to see what happens, or to lock them in isolation chambers where they slowly go mad. It is no wonder that Goodall's work in the late 90s began to focus more and more on ending all captive experiments on the creatures she knows so well. (See my review of her later work, BRUTAL KINSHIP, Aperture Foundation, 199, which focuses on that effort.) THROUGH A WINDOW is an inspiring look at the joy, satisfaction, heartbreak and struggle of one scientist who has changed our world.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Amazing...!, 2007-05-28
Ever since reading Jane Goodall's book "Reason For Hope" (which is another highly-recommended one on my list), I have called her "Our Lady of Hope"; she truly has paved the way for a brighter future in her study of the animals and plants. And with her optimism and positive outlook, how could I not be floored by her work?
This book takes you on an emotional roller-coaster; tenderness (Flo's natural mothering instincts and her care for her children and her daughter, Fifi, imitating her mother), sadness (Flo's death and her son, Flint, pining away before dying; the short, tragic life of the unfortunate, long-suffering Gilka), horror (Passion and Pom savagely killing and eating their own community's newborns; the brutal warfare in the mid-70s), and amazement (at how very much like humans that animals are).
This book is simply a gem. And the images are marvelous: sometimes grim, sometimes tender, but seldom dull.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Surprisingly Entertaining, 2006-05-24
When I picked up this book it was because I randomly chose it from a pile of recommendations a friend gave me. I had no desire to read it, and the only reason I actually went through with it was that a) I would have to give the book back someday and b) she always recommends good-to-decent books. And despite the obvious reputation that Goodall has, I still had no desire to read it. Having recently picked up (and put down) Rachel Carson's The Edge of the Sea, I was in no mind to read another nature-based book. That gives you a good indication of my mindset going into this.
I'm glad I was wrong. I enjoyed this book much more than I would have imagined - it's a fascinating read. I say that having had virtually no prior interest in chimpanzee's nor Jane Goodall. I doubt I would have read this book on my own, since there are a million books begging to be read every time I open my eyes. Sometimes you need to go where you don't necessarily want in order to find a jewel.
The title of this book refers to the window that Goodall gets when she observes the chimps over the years. Through this window she gets an idea of how we, humans, have evolved from where we were to where we are. It gives her a glimpse of the similarities - sometimes uncanny - between chimps and humans. This window often leads to observations you can never expect. Goodall's observations and her way with words fully draw you into the narrative.
Goodall writes anecdotally, attempting to illustrate her point with examples of behavior she observes in the field. These instances make the book much easier to read than a pure scientific approach. Through the text you grow to like (and dislike) some of the chimps in the narrative, as well as easily finding yourself drawn into the various elements of (nearly human) chimp behavior.
The thing I find most surprising is that the stories which transpire between the "actors" are just as dramatic as a work of fiction. They say that fact is stranger than fiction. I don't know if I agree, but it can undoubtedly be interesting. It's certainly a surprise how similar the chimps are to us - or maybe it's not, which I guess is one of the points of the book.
If I have to take on the other POV, which I usually force myself to do in an effort to be fair, I suppose I have to say that despite all she has seen, she does at times force the issue that chimps are better than people. One thing I worried about was that Goodall would constantly laud how amazing the animals are and how we humans could learn from them. For the most part, she doesn't do this. From time to time she seems to be on the verge, but she balances it out with fair observations on both sides of the fence.
In all, it is a riveting book that is well-balanced and, to be sure, well researched. Goodall's years of experience no doubt come through with this book, and her ease behind the keyboard is surprising. I did not find this clunky in the normal vein of science texts at all. In fact, it was a smooth read, almost to a word. Granted, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the subject matter discussed in Through A Window is sure to entertain most people who pick it up. Excellent book and highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Thirty Years of Goodall Research in Gombe, 2003-11-06
Jane Goodall's contributions to our knowledge of chimpanzees has been remarkable. Because she first arrived in Africa completely untrained as an observer of animal behavior, she was able to bring a humanist's instincts to her work; her natural ability to see details and connections, as well as her affection for her subjects, culminated in published results that rocked the scientific community. THROUGH A WINDOW picks up her observations where IN THE SHADOW OF MAN left off. Here, she follows the lives mostly of the children of the original group. She has organized her chapters by theme: Mothers and Daughters, Sons and Mothers, War, Power, Love, and more. Within these chapters, she explores the specific lives of the Gombe chimps and their relationships with their relatives and group members. By tackling specific topics of behavior, she is able to fully integrate the range of her experiences, from first observations to those made thirty years later. As Goodall is quick to point out, what she assumed at first did not necessarily prove to hold fast over time. No less fascinating than IN THE SHADOW OF MAN, this book is extraordinary for its insight into chimpanzee personalities, relationships, and culture. If you have never before read Goodall's books, you will be surprised by the strong echoes of human behavior in these wild and highly individual chimpanzees. Goodall has made enormous contributions to our understanding of non-human primates, and should be widely read.
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