The Ascent Of Man : Complete BBC Series [DVD] [1973]

Almost on a par with the World at War, which is high praise indeed. Mr Bronowski comes across as completely authoritative, yet accessible and speaking to you as an equal, and at times you are just gasping for his next word. Occasionally he does ramble on, but you always feel it's building up to a killer point. Yes the science is at times dated, but the quality and depth of his observations is never in doubt. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series, but a particular highlight was the episode on Galileo, with his vilification by the church of the day being very well told.If you are intrigued by the evolution of man and his progress through the millennia you will not be disappointed in this series. No patronising actors, no silly music or graphics, just an intellectual and thought-provoking adventure told directly to you by an academic man who obviously loves his subject material.

In 1969 the BBC broadcast one of its first color documentaries, “Civilization". Written and presented by art historian Kenneth Clark, the 13-part series looked at the great works of European culture starting in the Dark Ages, and advanced the theory (among others) that art was a significant force in driving civilization forward. Polish-born mathematician Jacob Bronowski disagreed and thought it was science that advanced humanity and civilization. As a counterpoint to Clark's series, Bronowski convinced the BBC to produce "The Ascent of Man", a 13-part documentary that traces the development of man from prehistoric cave dwellers to contemporary society focusing on how scientific advances led to changes and more advances.Unlike many documentaries of the time, The Ascent of Man does not take a strict chronological look at its subject. Though the series does start with the evolution of man and examines various pre-human species, Bronowski follows threads of discovery, tracing the effect of one invention on society and seeing what comes from that. It's a method that will be employed years later with James Burke's Connections, and it serves Bronowski well in this series.The series does deal with a lot of science, but it's never overly intellectual or above the average layman's head. A brilliant scientist and compelling presenter, Bronowski uses simple examples and explanations for the various scientific principles that he's discussing and never gets too technical or obtuse.One of the most impressive aspects of this series, and what makes it stand out so much when compared to other documentaries, is that it does not take a solely Eurocentric view on advances. Bronowski gives a lot of credit to Eastern innovations, gunpowder, the loom, and steel to name a few, and even discusses how and why Europe developed in different ways than China and Japan.One of the more interesting episodes deals with metallurgy; the use of natural copper found in its metallic state to the discovery that certain rocks could be melted to obtain copper. From there he discusses the problems with copper, that it won't keep an edge and is very soft, to the counter-intuitive process of adding another soft metal, tin, to copper in order to make a stronger alloy, bronze.He moves to Japan for the invention of steel, and it is here that he makes an interesting point. The making of Japanese swords is a very ritualized. Why is that? Bronowski hypothesizes that it has to do with the difficulty of making steel in general and a sword in particular. A sword need to be able to keep a sharp edge for a long time, be rigid enough to cut through flesh and bone, but also be flexible so that it does not break when it hits another sword. Iron has to be heated to fairly exact temperatures and have just the right amount of carbon and other metals added to it in order to make high grade steel. Once those problems are solved, how do you pass down the information to the next generation when reading and writing is a rare ability and scientific language did not yet exist? The Japanese did this by ritualizing the practice. A ritual is simply a set of steps that are taken in a particular order without variation and that's exactly what is needed to ensure that the proper steps are taken when creating a steel sword.The series is filled with ingenious insights like that which are sure to generate a lot of thought.

Bronowski has followed on the heels of Clark's `Civilization' on behalf of man's chief scientific achievements.In order to pull this off he has had less material to go on than Clark in terms of visual monuments,artefacts and buildings and has had to explain and illustrate major theories,processes and intellectual ideas.The question of how to film this would have been a major conundrum.He does this by taking us though each intellectual step by a kind of passionate articulation,dramatic delivery which includes pregnant pauses as if he's searching for the word he needs,and a studied rhythm of movement,pacing and expression.Also each episode takes us through mankind's development,from pastoralism,to agriculture(great pictures of the formation of breadwheat),to metallurgy, to settled civilization,as well as man's long infancy.He's also quick to snatch back from Clark's imperial gaze the word `civilization':'water and wheat,this is what creates civilization','civilization is the elaboration of processes'.His chapter on Pythagoras is an inspired demonstration of putting across complex ideas about geometry and a superb evocation of crystals using computers.He succinctly describes ideas with a choice phrase: fire like life as a `process','physics is a knife that cuts into the grain of nature,fire the knife that cuts below the visible structure into the stone',' a machine is a device for tapping the power of nature',and so on.You are reminded that he was also a published poet,passionate about the arts.There is a beautiful use of classical music to link or illustrate episodes.He also effectively uses periods of art to express major scientific advances:pointillism,cubism and expressionism.Man distinguished himself from animals,who find a niche in nature,to change his environment,rather than accept it.His shows the time lag from Old World to New World,of 2000 years,goes from the beam in Macchu Piccu to the beam in the Greek temple to the Roman arch and the gothic cathedral.He shows the start of theoretical science by man's exploration of the structure below the surface and his programme on the evolution of chemistry.His programme on Galileo is a passionate historical essay,taking us through the trial of Galileo,the threat of torture and his imprisonment in his last 20 years.Man trapped by his environment.The movement of intellectual discovery tonorthern Europe,Kepler,Newton ,Leibnitz and onto a very clever treatment of Einstein's theory of relativity.He's not averse to showing satire on the solitary genius,Newton.He describes the importance of the biological sciences by running in parallel the stories of Darwin and Wallace.His true passion is when his own story coincides with 20th century physics(World within World) and he talks of all the major movers:Mendelev, Rutherford,Bohr,Chadwick,Gauss,Silzard, Boltzmann,Heisenberg.All penetrators into the hidden world of the atom,as well as Hiroshima and Auschwitz,the latter showing man's dogma and arrogance,man's inability to accept uncertainty and desire for absolute power.On inheritance and the lonely monk Mendel he moves onto to the structure of DNA,the double helix,the relevance of human sexual selection.In the last chapter in book, titled The Long Childhood, Bronowski goes back to what makes man human and what has made the ascent of man possible. He says, "We are all afraid - for our confidence, for the future, for the world. That is the nature of the human imagination. Yet every man, every civilization has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do. The personal commitment of man to his skill, the intellectual commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one,has made the Ascent of Man.This is a significant achievement in broadcasting history.With the advent of colour TV,TV was shown to be aneducational medium for explaining and discussing ideas.He makes clear it's his own 'personal view'.This, together with Cooke's 'America' and `Civilization' were all 13 part series,significant milestones in the transmission of great ideas of man's history and culture.Every household should obtain a copy and the book too.