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.

Douglas Abrams is an author, editor, and literary agent. While most of his work is non-fiction, he has written two fiction books and worked on films. An overarching trend in Doug’s career is how his work speaks to a desire to spread awareness about and action toward social change. For instance, his work on Michael Sells’s book, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia, helped raise awareness of the genocide in Kosovo; his work with Kevin Bales’s Disposable People raised awareness about modern slavery; and his work with Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy detailed the prison reform movement. Doug’s commitment to “action”––which The Book of Hope identifies as a primary outcome of hope­––makes him a suitable co-author for Jane, who is also committed to using her work to make her aspirations for the future of the planet possible.