The Ascent of Man

This landmark BBC series from 1973 covers, in thirteen episodes, humanity's scientific and technological discoveries, more or less chronologically. Its host is Jacob Bronowski, a Polish born, British based Jewish mathematician. Clearly an influence on Carl Sagan's Cosmos, this was a sort of an answer to Kenneth Clark's great series Civilization, which despite its title, did not cover science but only art (and only Western European art at that).

The short, brilliant Bronowski reminisces about his personal anecdotes with some of the greatest scientists and intellectuals of the 20th century, like Enrico Fermi, John Von Neumann, Leo Szilard and Aldous Huxley. As did Sagan in Cosmos, he puts himself ideologically in the humanist pro science center left (though he is not as strident an atheist as Sagan). Bronowski would die a year later after this was released from a heart attack. At times, during the series, he looks worn and tired (he was in his mid sixties when he filmed this). The shooting of this series in several countries (including places quite remote in the 1970s such as Easter Island and Machu Picchu or as emotionally moving as Auschwitz, where a large portion of his family died) must have been quite strenuous on him.

In 40 years, some of it has dated, naturally (the computer graphics look very crude now, and some of the scientific information has been surpassed by more recent knowledge) but this is still a very worthwhile, informative TV series to watch.

While I was as captivated as all who enjoyed the release of this series on UK television, back when there were only three terrestrial TV channels available to us, a lot has developed in the last 50 years.

We were truly in awe of JB's knowledge. A super communicator, who had an such a warm delivery. Like your favourite teacher at school. I felt enriched. To be enlightened with the knowledge he shared. At the time you would have to visit many libraries, many times to come close to the knowledge that he had on the subject. The locations, the people, flora, fauna... we're way beyond the average citizens remit.

He was rightly held in high regard by his audiences and academic peers.

However, it appears slightly condescending at points, how he describes the pointless lives of the nomads whose toils in the bleakest of locations, well... amounted to nothing; how women and old people, were disregarded by the menfolk and left to die alone on mountainsides etc... It actually spoiled my memory of what was, in its day, a wonderfully produced educational masterpiece.

Before Sagan's "Cosmos" and before James Burke's "Connections", Jacob Bronowski brought us a thoughtful examination of the history of mankind and his achievements. The angle here was to look at how those achievements effected events and shaped society as a whole.

I saw the series when it first aired, and was fascinated by it, but the series seemed non-linear, and I supposed to a young mind would seem disjointed. I still get some of that feeling when I rewatch episodes of this very good TV documentary.

I'll also add that a lot of factual history is correct, but I think Bronowski, as a social scientist, perhaps social psychologist, draws some of the wrong conclusions. Then again social science, like all sciences, is a field of research branching from the major hard sciences, so in this regard everyone is entitled to an opinion. The only way to nod or shake your head at Bronowski is to double check your own facts to see if he's right or not.

Bronowski takes us from man's humble beginnings in Africa, and shows us our primate ancestor's migratory pattern and how we populated the world today. But the real genius of the program is him showing us how our advances in understanding formed our civilization.

I applaud the program, but disagree with some of Bronowski's conclusions, though for the supermajority of the series, he does have things aright.

If you've seen Sagan or Burke do their thing with their TV series, then have a look at Bronowski's version from the early 70s. Definitely one to see for the scientist history buff in all of us.

Enjoy.

Nowadays many different books have been written to explain the unfolding of humans and civilization. This program covers many great products and inventors instead of all the great wars. In the 1970s this was unique to the public. And this program is the template for those to follow.

The contents include: Lower than the Angles (evolution of the head) The Harvest of the Seasons (the pace of cultural evolution) The Grain in the Stone (blood group evidence of migration) The Hidden Structure (fire) The Music of the Spheres (the language of numbers) The Starry Messenger (the cycle of seasons) The majestic Clockwork (Kepler's laws) The Drive for Power (Everyday technology) The ladder of Creation (are other formulas of life possible?) World Within World (the periodic table) Knowledge of Certainty (There is no absolute knowledge) Generation upon generation (cloning of identical forms) The Long Childhood (The commitment of man)

I have the original hardback book, reference book, and study guide. I bought my DVD set from Great Brittan as they were less expensive at the time. The U. S. version has since come down in price.

This is a humanities course at the local college. Another advantage was getting to go through the Watts Towers as a kid. This work does rings around "Connections" by James Burke because it is the story of the people behind the connections.

I am not saying that this presentation replaces others, but that it has more to say without resorting to today's sound bite system of presenting. You will have to stop and look up references then rewatch.

I first watched this on PBS when I was twenty-years old and every week, I settled in to see this amazing and thought-provoking essay. It is, a unique and wonderful journey into the heart and soul of the human plane of existence. Now, 68 I watch the shows as I did back then (*well, "binge watching lite") and still have that same exuberant feeling of unapologetic joy. There will never be another series created with so many moments of introspection on the viewer's part. To call it a masterpiece is justly deserved, but it will forever be a monument of educational television broadcasting.