The Ascent Of Man : Complete BBC Series

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.

Ignore the less than fulsome reviews listed here and buy it. If you don't have the attention span of a goldfish or are prone to make rediculously anachronistic judgements about the graphics and cinematography, you will enjoy the journey and the way Bronowski steadfastly refuses to talk down to you. This is a stunning piece of television and must be one of the jewel's in the BBC tarnished crown. There is no attempt to 'dumb down' here, in either content or style. The intellectual content is high, especially in the earlier and later episodes, where Bronowski explores some of his own ideas about the nature of science and scientific knowledge. The only frustration is that you will be left wanting him to say more. For example, at one point he compares scientific discovery to Michelagelo's 'discovery' of a sculpture inside the piece of marble. So, science is part process of discovery and part process of creation: interesting idea, and not exactly uncontroversial, so it needs rather more discussion that it gets here. But this is a minor quibble: one can hardly complain about a series made for mass television that is packed with so many interesting ideas. It is also true that, in terms of style, it is hard to imagine such a series being made nowadays. Consider the last episode, The Long Childhood: this is a televisual tour de force. The first 20 - 25 minutes consists of an un-cut tracking shot of Bronowski in his Californian home extemporising to camera whilst moving around his home and using objects as teaching aids. What's hard to imagine is modern documetary makers respecting their audience sufficiently, or having the confidence in their audience's powers of concentration, to do this without punctuating it with some padding: perhaps a pointless graphic or shaky, out of focus, or off-centre camera work and some over-dramatic music. Personally, I would rather have Bronoswki's "theatrical pauses" than the patronising tosh we are usually served up. Oh, and by the way, if the computer graphics look "at least 25 years old", that ain't bad for a programme released in 1973! There have been great documentary science series since (Aubrey Manning's 'Earth Story' springs to mind) but 'Ascent of Man' is surely the benchmark.

If you saw this brilliant series when it first aired, you'd understand why I had been searching for for years for a set of DVDs of The Ascent of Man. Jacob Bronowski is perhaps not as well known as he once was, which is a pity, as he was a brilliant polymath who presented great ideas to a huge audience. He started out as a mathematician, made important contributions to the history and philosophy of science, and spent the latter part of his life studying biology. The Ascent of Man was conceived as a complimentary piece to Sir Kenneth Clarke's "Civilization," looking at the scientific world view in contrast with Clarke's view of the arts, but in Bronowski's vision, art and science are inseparable, and this is made clear though the series. The Ascent of Man is, at its heart, an inquiry into the nature of civilization and science, and most importantly, the nature of knowledge and knowing. It begins with the first questions that ancient philosophers asked about their environment, and ends with an impassioned plea for doubting, and against absolute knowledge. It served as a template for many popular shows that followed, like Saga's "Cosmos," but I can't think of a show in the wake of "Ascent" that came close to it in the depth of its inquiry. I don't think "The Ascent of Man" has been shown on television- at least in the US- since the 1980s, and I doubt that it will ever be seen again; having been filmed in 16mm and transferred to videotape, it probably looks too crude on today's HDTV screens. But it should be shown, for the reason that it is simply once of the best things ever done for television anywhere, by anyone.

This is an epic documentary and one of the best I have ever seen. Highly reccomemned. Should be part of the standard education of anayone in the Western world. Also available as a book.

superb documentary

This is one of the great documentary series of all times. The cinematography and Bronowski’s ties are really dated, but the content is superb.

The truly antecessor of 'Cosmos', yet a story of human progress in humanistic key, not from the classical and mechanical monkey offspring view, but from the intention to the future and discovery through their major milestones: agriculture, metals, studying the matter, heaven forces, genetics own and all future possibilities. - El verdadero antecesor de "Cosmos": Una historia del progreso humano en clave humanista no desde el punto de vista clásico y mecánico desde la descendencia del mono, sino desde la intención de futuro y descubrimiento a través de sus grandes hitos: la agricultura, los metales, el estudio de la materia, de los cielos, de las fuerzas, de la propia genética y de todas las posibilidades de futuro.

Excellent