In the Shadow of Man

In the Shadow of Man

by
4.33 of 5 stars 4.33  ·  rating details  ·  2,189 ratings  ·  116 reviews
This best-selling classic tells the story of one of the world's greatest scientific adventures. Jane Goodall was a young secretarial school graduate when the legendary Louis Leakey chose her to undertake a landmark study of chimpanzees in the wild. In the Shadow of Man is an absorbing account of her early years at Gombe Stream Reserve, telling us of the remarkable discover...more
Paperback, 297 pages
Published April 21st 2000 by Mariner Books (first published 1971)
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
Charlotte's Web by E.B. WhiteWatership Down by Richard AdamsWhere the Red Fern Grows by Wilson RawlsAnimal Farm by George OrwellBlack Beauty by Anna Sewell
Best Books About Animals
81st out of 605 books — 916 voters
Things Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeThe Poisonwood Bible by Barbara KingsolverHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieHeart of Darkness by Joseph ConradCry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Africa
145th out of 655 books — 501 voters


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Denise
My tattered and beloved copy of this book now bears the inscription:
Denise
Follow Your Heart
Jane Goodall

I read this book about ten years ago, and to this day it remains one of my favorites. Jane Goodall had gone to secretary school and just happened to have a connection to the Leakey family, whose discoveries have shaped our view of evolution today. A young woman with no prior knowledge about chimpanzees finds herself in the middle of the Gombe, following chimps as they go about their daily busi...more
Larry
Dec 06, 2008 Larry rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who thinks we were created special.
This book is #1 on my list of the books that most influenced my life. The orginial publishing date I am guessing was in the 60's or early 70's when the author, the elfin like Jane Goodall, was both young and unknown. She was a disciple of Leakey but possessed of an intellect equal or surpassing his. This single book, written well before all the later DNA work was to me the crystal window into the evolution of human beings. Whatever Christian based uncertainties I had vanished upon my reading of...more
Selaine Henriksen

Last week my friend Sandy and I went to see a movie about Jane Goodall's life which she was there to present and then had a Q&A session and signed autographs. She's 77! Sandy said that was definitely one of her items on her bucket list. Whenever Sandy and I get together something strange happens. She ended up with a touch of the flu that struck just as we were leaving and then throwing up outside of the car on the street. I'm sure my neighbors, because natch it was back in the 'hood, thought...more
dragonhelmuk
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Steven Peterson
A really fine volume. Jane Goodall describes her study of chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream in Tanzania. She and her team has studied these animals over a long period of time. This covers the social behavior of the chimpanzees in the earlier years of the study.

The story occurs at several levels. One, simply, is the interaction of individuals with their own personalities--Flo, David, Goliath, Faben, Merlin, Passion, and so on. Another level is the group/society. What is the structure of the society...more
Teagan D
I loved this. I can't promise that everyone would - I have a feeling it was a case of "this was the perfect book for where I am emotionally/intellectually/spiritually at the moment and it struck home." But even if you were to read it and not feel compelled to give it five stars, I really think you'd like it. Jane's writing made me feel as if we were sitting together over coffee; she's well-written without being pretentious, careful in her observation and description without being dry or over-sci...more
readinrobin
This was an incredibly riveting, interesting, amusing, amazing book. In the 1960s, Jane Goodall left secretarial work to travel to the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve (now the Gombe National Park), along with her mother because officials there did not believe a young woman her age should be unaccompanied, to begin studying chimpanzees. The author's love for her work, for the chimps, for nature, for the reserve, come through fiercely. This is a very detailed and impressive account of her time the...more
Mayday Maddie
Well, I must admit that this book made Jane Goodall one of my role models... Young girl from Europe leaves a fair job & city behind in the 1960s for the rolling wilderness of the Gombe reserve and chimpanzees. Goodall's story is very inspirational and bittersweet. You fall in love with the chimp troop just like she did, live and die with them from page to page. The photographs are very cute (I only wish there were more).
It is very startling how human-esque these chimpanzees really are. Desp...more
Xue
An amazing read! A well written book with intriguing stories about chimpanzees. The author does a great job adding a personal, light-hearted touch while providing enough information for readers to learn about the chimpanzees as species. I gave four stars only because I do not agree with some of the anthropocentric perspectives/world views of the author revealed through her writing - I study environmental management, and I suppose that back in 1960s, they had a different sort of conservation cult...more
Valerie
Actually, I've read am earlier edition, not this one. I know something of what's happened in the interim, and I've actually been to one of Goodall's lectures, but I haven't read the current edition, which I suspect probably contains things like the polio epidemic.

In another book (I think by Roger Fouts), an incident is described in which Goodall was given a tour of chimpanzees in a medical research facility. She's described as being unable to speak because she was choked up with tears at how awf...more
Sky
I have always loved this story and the enlightenment Jane Goodall always manages to emit. I met her in 1993 and it was something I will never forget.

"Thinking back over my life, it seems to me that there are different ways of looking out and trying to understand the world around us. There's a very clear scientific window. And it does enable us to understand an awful lot about what's out there. There's another window, it's the window through which the wise men, the holy men, the masters, of the...more
Moira
An interviewer once asked Ms. Goodall what one thing she wished for and she replied that she'd like to be able to know how a chimpanzee thinks, feels...in other words to trade places for one moment and look out at the world with our nearest primate relative's brain, to know what he knows, feels and thinks. With her research and resulting books, she has gotten as close as possible to that wish and brought that perspective to us as well. This book is her first: an account of the beginning of the r...more
Tahleen
I skipped around because I had to read part of it for school, but I like it so much that I ended up finishing it. She's got a very descriptive style and presents the chimps as individuals, making the book extremely accessable. Plus she wasn't a technical "scientist" when she began her research; she was just a young British woman who loved animals, didn't even have a college education. I thought that was so cool.

It's very interesting to read the stories of the community she watched at Gombe, and...more
Kelly
I love the way Goodall's observations of the chimpanzees are so similar to the observations someone would make of humans. The chimps go to each other for physical contact (a hug, pat on the back, etc) when they are frightened, after a fight, when they want to show affection, in greeting, or when they need comfort. I'm noticing that everywhere now: kissing a bumped head, my son fighting with his best friend at a park and then hugging him ten seconds later, two adult males greeting each other with...more
Mike
This may not be the most methodologically correct form of naturalist writing, but I was totally interested in the lives of the chimps Goodall observed in the Gombe. Goodall is very sentimental, but the detail of chimp behavior in this book is still rich. You get a sense of the rhythm of their lives and the individual personalities of chimps come out. The photos and illustrations are also cool. This is a very accessible document of pioneering research in primatology that will hopefully make you m...more
pri
May 28, 2009 pri rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2009
beautiful account of her work and stories of the characters that she met in the chimps that she studied. full portraits that really make you care about what happens to each chimp and cry when one dies a sad death. i did find that i wished she would talk more about her own experiences. being with her mother out there in the gombe. being alone afterwards. she devoted so much of herself to her work. but it did make me long for a book that covered how she herself felt in the work and with her child...more
Kalie Lyn
Almost everyone has heard of Jane Goodall and her work with the chimpanzees. However, the stories of the chimpanzees themselves, and what made Jane fall in love with them in the first place, is something not everyone is familiar with. In the Shadow of Man is a book about those stories, and about the early years, which would become many years, of Jane Goodall’s study, research, and fascination with human’s closest living relatives.

Not only is this book informational and descriptive about the comp...more
Tippy Jackson
Overall enjoyable. She does a good break down of chimp relationships. Some parts were sad. I will say that I think the manner of studying chimps by luring them to your camp with bananas is of course altering the very behaviors you're trying to objectively study. However, I do think she still gains a lot of valuable information and she is constantly asking the right questions. More than the answers, it is her never ending questions that I enjoyed. I also believe she has a good idea of how her set...more
Jacqui
I read Jane Goodall's In the Shadow of Man (Houghton Mifflin 1971) years ago as research for a paleo-historic novel I was writing. I needed background on the great apes so I could show them acting appropriately in their primeval setting tens of thousands of years ago. While I did get a marvelous treatise from this book on their wild environ, I also got my first introduction to the concept that they are almost-human, maybe even human cousins.

But I digress. Back to Jane Goodall.

This is the memoir...more
Tony
Only three stars mainly because of the subject, book deservers five but you have to be a hardcore chimpanzee lover and probably have a scientific approach to fully enjoy this. For me, it was a struggle to finish. Jane Goodall certainly has done an amazing work and helped to break some boundaries. For me the obvious comparison is of course Gorillas In The Mist that I read a while back. I can't help it but somehow Dian Fossey's guerilla like, rebellious and outrageous efforts to defend the gorilla...more
Cheryl
My favorite chimp was David Graybeard.

This is a good story and adventure. I feel like I am right there with Jane Goodall and the chimps and I wish I was. Watching these chimps and learning about their different personalities and seeing all this would be amazing. I was definitely drawn into learning about every one of them and felt happy when something wonderful happened and not so happy when tragedy and sickness occurred. The fate of Mr. McGregor was particularly moving.

The story's a bit anthrop...more
Stephen
A science classic. Dame Jane Goodall’s first book about her early years in the Gombe National Park studying chimpanzees. Her work was groundbreaking, what she learned monumental and this book is the testament to the humanness Goodall discovered within our closest living relative.

I have a first edition hardback published in 1971 with color photographs. Simply a wonderful, wonderful book, I've read more than once. Highly cherished.
Dave
It's a field study of chimpanzees living in Tanzania. that with addendum covers on generation (40y or so) of tribe(ish). The parallels to human activity are amazing, it's like humans without the bull of language and civilization. I found myself in the constant...hmmm how would I react. The part on child development was enlightening, especially since the author was in the processes of having on herself. The way that the author is able to bring her own experience into the discussion helped to illu...more
Kathleen
There are some books that I have been moving with me for the past 40 years. Its fun to revisit them to see if they still have that "magic". The book does chronicle an amazing change in science history - the beginning of long-term animal behavior studies in the field. The stories of the chimps interactions and chimp-human interactions are interesting. I still admire JG for her pioneering work.
Jenny
I read this on the plane on my way to Colombia. Goodall writes well, and I loved the chapter about her initial arrival at the Goombe Reserve, when she hiked alone each day and sat quietly for hours hoping to see Chimpanzees feeding. While observing or hiking wild boars, Boas and Leopards would pass within feet of her and she maintained a cool head.

And then . . . she starts feeding the Chimps, and naming them, and attributing all sorts of emotions to them. After my initial shock and distate for...more
Shauna Mckelly
This book falls chronologically before Through a Window and describes the author's experiences in Gombe studying chimpanzees. This book is very informative, and the life histories of the various chimps are fascinating. I read this book after Through a Window and was still able to piece together the story in reverse, but it probably would have been easier to have read this book first.
Stephanie
I personally read this book as part of biology class. I chose it because I had always admired Jane goodall. However I never thought that I would have been so touched by this amazing story. It made me want to be a zoologist even more than I ever had before. Jane is without a doubt my idol.
Natasha11
If I could suggest any one Jane Goodall book, this would be the book. This is where she started. It is emotionally charged and incredibly educational. I cannot think of a better book on Primatology. Bottom line is, Jane Goodall is an amazing person and this book captures that.
James
Read the initial published copy from around 1970 that I picked up in a used bookstore and loved it. Had the honor to stand in line and shake her hand after a reading inside a church in Pasadena,CA that was part of tour promoting a "Reason for Hope".
Ivan Stoikov - Allan Bard
A great description of the wild chimpanzees' life, probably one of the best books about animals' life. A book that shows we have to really think about all those horrible things we do to our "Little" brothers...
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
In the Shadow of Man Pa (Paperback)
In the Shadow of Man (Paperback)
In the Shadow of Man (Paperback)
In the Shadow of Man (Hardcover)
In the Shadow of Man (Paperback)

18163
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall), is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute an...more
More about Jane Goodall...
Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe My Life with the Chimpanzees Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink

Share This Book

Your website