The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses genocide.

Jane Goodall is a noted primatologist, naturalist, anthropologist, and activist. When she was young she didn’t have the money for university, so at 26, she went with a few basic supplies to Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania). Under the guidance of her mentor and advocate, Louis Leakey, Jane began to observe chimps in Gombe. Jane’s perseverance and natural understanding of animal behavior helped her gain the trust of the chimpanzees. Without a science background, Jane had no preconceived notions of their behaviors and tendencies. She named each chimp to distinguish them as individuals, rather than numbering them as previous scientists had. Her discovery of how chimps craft and use tools helped to deepen understanding of primates.

Jane tells Doug how her interest in chimps made her aware of systemic inequalities that people on the African continent deal with. This addition to her advocacy eventually became global, as Jane became a conservationist, youth mentor, humanitarian, inspirational speaker, and climate activist known world-wide. In the same way that Jane redefined people’s assumptions about the relationship between animals and humans, her work in The Book of Hope strives to redefine how people think of their role in creating change for the future of the planet.