The Ascent of Man

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.

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.

"The Ascent of Man" is a wonderful and fascinating account of Man's rise from ape to computer-maker through many intermediate steps. Jacob Bronowski does a fantastic job narrating Man's history through the ages. Bronowski was a Jew who found refuge in England after the Nazis invaded his native Poland. Indeed, the most poignant movement in "The Ascent of Man" is when Bronowski visits a former concentration camp where many of relatives were done to death. I had tears in my eyes when I watched that episode. Bronowski's friendship with great nuclear physicists like Leo Szilard enabled him to present a unique perspective on the nuclear age. For example, Bronowski reveals that Szilard conceived the atom bomb when he stopped his car at a stop light and says that is the only part he could not believe - Szilard always ran red lights! Bronowski's account of Darwin and evolution and of Mendel and genetics are the best I have ever seen.

"The Ascent of Man" paints on a huge canvas. What else is suitable for depicting the history of Man? The only criticism I have is that "The Ascent of Man" is rather Eurocentric. It neglects the role of China and India in Man's progress, though it acknowledges the Islamic influence on Europe.

The program was made in 1973, yet it is not outdated. In the last episode, Bronowski prophetically hinted at the coming of the computer age - an age he would not live to see. It is a pity that "The Ascent of Man" is not available on video. Luckily, the book version is still obtainable. Having read it, I strongly recommend it.

Reviewed by Sundar Narayan

Every few years, some prominent public intellectual is privileged to travel the world making a series about the history of humanity. In 1973, it was mathematician Jacob Boronowski's turn, and 'The Ascent of Man' tells of the rise of civilisation as viewed through the lens of science. The formula has hardly changed in the ensuing 50 years - rather surprisingly, even computer graphics (such as we might see in a more modern programme) had already arrived and are on display here. What's most noticeable is that firstly, Boronowski doesn't dumb down; but also, his series was subtitled 'A Personal View' and that it is, full of individual insights of a sort that now feels quite rare. Sometimes his thoughts are deep, sometimes less so; but they're all his, whereas it's sadly more common for this sort of programme to feel like an official guidebook, offering the consensus view of mankind's greatest hits. Instead, Boronowski was allowed to talk at length, and was thus able to make subtle points that rely on many words. In this respect alone, the series does feel dated; but only in reminding us of something we have lost.

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.