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.”
