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The Ascent of Man
The ascent of man is a thirteen-part documentary series produced television by the BBC and Time-Life Films first broadcast in 1973, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski.
Conceived as a series of documentaries of view in the form of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation series 1969, the series received the applause of well-informed analysis, but simple eloquence of Bronowski, unscripted monologues long and extensive location shoots.
The title alludes to The Descent of Man, the second book on evolution by Charles Darwin. Over thirteen episodes of the series, Bronowski around the world to follow the development of human society through their understanding of science.
Series schedule:
The evolution of man from ape-proto 400,000 years ago – less than the angels.
The harvest of the season – early human migration, agriculture and the first settlements, war.
The grain of the stone – development tools architecture and sculpture.
The hidden structure – The fire, metals and alchemy.
Music of the Spheres – The language of numbers.
The Starry Messenger – Galileo’s universe.
Majestic mechanics – Explore Newton’s laws and Einstein.
The drive for power – the Industrial Revolution.
The ladder of Creation – Darwin and Wallace’s ideas on the origin of species.
World within the world – The history of the periodic table.
Knowledge or certainty – Physics and the clash of absolute knowledge, the oppressive state, and realize their doubts the result of its terrible outcome.
Generation after generation – life, genetics and cloning identically.
The long childhood – treated Bronowski on the commitment of man.
The Ascent of Man,
Thank you for uploading this, I was directed to “The Ascent of Man” by no less a person than Professor Richard Dawkins via another recording on you tube.
A brilliant, wonderful series. I remember watching it when it originally aired on PBS, back in the ’70s. It inspired me to buy and read the book. The Ascent of Man is one of the programs that, unlike today’s pseudo-science programs on the “Science” Channel and other cable channels, was primarily concerned with educating the viewer, rather than with entertaining the viewer for the purpose of selling the products and services of sponsors. Great stuff; watchable, over and over! Thanks!
Add me to all the comments on here about thanking you for uploading this very interesting video and subsequent upcoming episodes !!
wow! that computer! 22:54Compare with the notebooks of today…the ipads…it’s like we’re looking at the ascent of man on a distant planet.
btw, great series and a fantastic blast from the past! Thanks for sharing!
I promise you, it’s not been forgotten! I was born almost a decade after the great Bronowski died, and I’m not alone among my cohorts who think this the greatest documentary of them all!
I wonder how many more idioms can Lemonheart69 understand in order to judge others peoples love or disregard for history.Guess that one of my Anglo Saxon heroes would say the following:”We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think — in fact they do so.”Bertrand Russell
I wonder how many more idioms can Lemonheart69 understand in order to judge others peoples love or disregard for history.Guess that one of my Anglo Saxon heroes would say the following:”We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think — in fact they do so.”Bertrand Russell
This illuminating documentary was an essential component of the “Western Civilization” course I took in high school 40+ years ago. Kind of sad that it’s been forgotten these days how inspirational and affirmatively uplifting “humanism” was regarded back then. Thanks very much for uploading and keeping the memory alive.
Forgetting conspiracy theories, it is more likely that this is simply what he believed and was conventional wisdom in the early seventies. You do realise political correctness didn’t exist then? The Race Relations Act had not even been made law.
Unfortunately Bronowski, repeats the vitamin D theory about white skin as those it were verified fact. If it were true, why does man have hair on his head and grow beards to block out that same alleged vitamin D theory? Why ignore the inconvenient hair texture and color change and body/face morphing? The tone of the voice?This is bad science motivated by political correctness.
I hate to say it, but in my opinion this guy knows he is telling you a fairytale. The reasons he is telling you a fairytale is very complicated and diverse. He even mentions teeth and doesn’t mention man being a herbivoir and not a carnivoire. The implications of that are far more complicated than most can imagine.
Your response to ican…is a year old, but is new to me. Your remark about us ‘ needing more people in the world like JB ” Absolutly! This country has a lack of math/science major’s in our univercities, due in part, to incompetant professors & no NASA flight plans to take pride in. I have no doubt, that, if every student in their junior year of high-school, were required to start, develop & finish a quality dissertation/thesis based on “The Ascent of Man” and with a due-date at graduation….
I found this series because because I was looking up abiogenisis and found an excerpt from one of the episodes so I figured I wanted to see the context of the excerpt. After reading your comment I decided to watch the whole episode, I’m now halfway through the series. Thanks for your comment!
It is remarkable to consider both what I remember and what I have forgotten of this series in the course of 40 years. As a young man of 20, Bronowski was my hero. Imagine my surprise and delight when my 25-year-old son walked through the door last night with a copy of The Ascent of Man under his arm, unbidden and uprovoked by his father. Thank you.
been looking at these, which I first saw a long time ago. Back then there was a far more logical common sense, intellectual attitude pervasive, now, an awful lot of’ airy-fairy crap, seems far more permissible than it did then. be really interested to know if anyone else has noticed this. What caused that general change in view point? Does anyone out there know, or have ideas? I mean stuff like The Secret,getting taken seriously.Sometimes wonder if acceptance of Q. Mechs opened the flood gates?
this is what we need in life, people like Mr Jacob Brownoski, feynman, sagan, dawkins, newton, etc, but where? every day people is suffering because their minds are fixed into the materialistic obsessive money issue. people is more vulnerable to get more ignorant. is that what really people wants.?
PS to Fatfantastic.We actually have a wealth of fossil evidence that fills in many of the previous gaps in our knowledge. Sometimes new discoveries simply fill in the blanks. Other times they allow us to revise a theory. As scientists we must continually strive for clearer understanding of our subject and be prepared to, at times, give up a cherished idea when new evidence or data make it redundant. Welcome to the world of science, where gaps in knowledge are NOT filled in with magic.
Dear Fatfantastic, I believe you have missed the point completely. The entire scientific endeavour is about furthering the ends of human knowledge and trying to give us fact-based insights into some of the deeper truths of existence, rather than relying only on faith-based ones. Many scientists (Keppler, Newton, Einstein, etc) are men of faith who try to explain the world in a way that would be rational even IF god did not exist. You seem to be very angry for no good reason.
Thank you very much for uploading this absolute gem. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this until now, though I was only 2 when it first aired to be fair. It is so much more interesting than I’d imagined – a good companion to Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”. Sure, 4 decades later our understanding has changed on some things, but for me this is so much more about the big ideas than the empirical details. Besides you simply can’t beat the delivery of these old school characters and the 70s production values.
Many thanks Paler. Watched this series as a boy and I think it gave me the basis of a world view that that has stayed with me all my days.The thing that amazes me, though, is the small number of people that have viewed the series. Anyone out there that comes across this by chance, please, please take 57minutes out of your life and watch. you’ll then find it very difficult to not watch the other 12. Truly great.