The Ascent of Man

A bit wordy and dry, even dull at times at times (especially early on), but also full of ever more interesting insight and theories by writer/host Jacob Bronowski. It reminded me of nothing as much as a really interesting illustrated college lecture series.

The series is in 13 parts, each covering a different key step in the development of civilization. A few of Brononski's theories seem a bit stretched, or even wrong headed, the visual style is dated and the effects less than impressive, but that doesn't mean the show isn't interesting, thought provoking and occasionally quite moving -- especially as the series goes on.

I don't feel I need to ever re-see the earliest 4 or 5 episodes again. They feel pretty pedantic and straightforward, and there wasn't much I didn't find familiar.

But the the last 4 or 5 episodes are incredibly clear explanations of the often complex and confusing world of 19th and 20th century science, mixed with quite touching observations about the role of science in a bigger society, its poetry, and the way it feeds humanity' soul.

A strange series - it starts out as fine but nothing special, and ends up somewhere quite powerful.

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.

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.

This extraordinary series, thirteen fifty-minute episodes, is one of television's highest achievements; nearly forty years after its completion, it has lost little of its luster.

A mathematician whose professional journey included work on the Manhattan Project, later at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as well as an editor and scholar of the works of William Blake, Dr. Jacob Bronowski was one of the last true Renaissance men.

Presented here is a veritable smörgåsbord of human history cast against scientific advancements and technological innovations that take the viewer around the world, from the dawn of Man to the then-present of 1972. Along the way, Dr. Bronowski stops to examine some of humanity's greatest accomplishments - and lowest depths. One outstanding quality of this remarkable series is that he speaks to the viewer directly and very personally through the lens of the camera; the book of the same name is a virtual transcript of his remarks.

Not simply lectures (nor read from a script), these extemporaneous essays offer Bronowski's "personal view" on a wide range of human, scientific and technological history, presented in both a dramatic and memorable fashion. For example, the episodes are sprinkled with delightful (and sometimes moving) anecdotes of various people, some of whom Bronowski knew and worked with - such as Leo Szilard (who first conceived the concept of sustained nuclear fission - even coining the term "chain reaction" - and who subsequently wrote the letter which Einstein signed that was sent to FDR, bringing about the Manhattan Project) and John von Neumann (one of the great mathematicians of the twentieth century and the "Father of Electronic Computing").

Anyone with even a passing interest in the history of our species and its place amongst the stars, or of science in general, will be astonished, delighted, deeply moved and profoundly affected by "The Ascent of Man." The production value is of the highest order throughout (and, now in its second DVD incarnation, the sound, which was always somewhat problematic, has been greatly improved, matching the often stunning visuals).

(NOTE: Viewers who enjoy this series will also enjoy both the seven-part BBC miniseries "Oppenheimer" (1980) and their production of Michael Frayen's play "Copenhagen" (2002), both available on DVD.)

Highest possible recommendation.